#tyler x kae

[blurry-fics]

Saturday

A Weekend at the Josephs | Series Masterlist

Warnings: None

Word Count: 3057

Author’s Note: I hope all of you are enjoying this miniseries so far. I know it’s a little different than what I usually post! I hope you like the chapter :) (picture credit)

Sun was shining down on my legs as I sat on the front steps, waiting for Sav and Josh to come and pick me up. A light wind was rustling the trees and knocking the first few orange leaves from their branches onto the pavement below. Inside, I could just barely make out Zack and Jay having an argument.

Sav’s Jeep came into view around the corner and I stood up to meet them at the end of the driveway. She had all of the windows rolled down, revealing Josh and his bright blue hair hanging out the back. He called out to me once I was within earshot.

“I gave you shotgun! Sav told me you’ve been stressed.”

I turned and looked towards the front door, paranoid that one of the kids had opened it and overheard what Josh said. Nobody was there, as should have been expected.

“Thanks, Josh,” I said as I climbed into the passenger seat. Sav turned down the music she had been blasting and smiled at me.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m exhausted,” I explained. “Tyler kept me up until nearly three playing video games and then I had to wake up at nine so that I would be ready for breakfast. I’m not used to being on a schedule like this.”

“At least you and Tyler are getting along!”

“Yeah, you definitely have a point.”

Sav pulled away from the curb and used one of the neighbor’s driveways to turn around and head back for the main road. She had still yet to fill me in on what the final plan for the day was.

“Did you ever talk about him ditching you?”

“He was actually the first one to bring it up, which was nice because I’m not so sure I would have been able to go through with it. He apologized for how he’s been acting and said he really wants to work on being better.”

“That’s awesome!”

“Yeah, I’m just hoping that he means it, you know?”

“I’m sure he does.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Sav didn’t say anything after that, so I turned and looked out the window. Josh started to tell a story soon after, which I half paid attention to.

Mostly, my mind was just on Tyler.

*     *     *

As I soon found out, the established plan was to get smoothies and sit outside the small shop in what little bit of summer we had left before fall started to set in. I was on one side of the table facing Josh and Sav, who were sitting closer in their metal chairs than I thought was possible for two humans to sit. One of Josh’s arms was slung casually over the back of Sav’s chair, the other busy holding his smoothie.

“Do you work tomorrow?” Sav asked, turning her head towards Josh. She was currently pushing her straw through her smoothie, trying to get it to flow a little better.

“Yeah, I have a shift in the morning.”

“Kae.”

“Yeah?”

“You want to come over tomorrow morning? We can hang out with Paul.”

I smiled at the mention of Sav’s bearded dragon. Any opportunity to hang out with him - and Sav - was a good one.

“Yeah, that would be cool. Can you pick me up?”

“Yep.”

“Ok, awesome.”

I turned out towards the parking lot. There was a group of teenagers standing outside one car, obviously in the middle of some sort of heated argument. One of them was waving their arms wildly in the air.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?”

I didn’t realize Sav’s statement was directed at me until it was met with silence. I turned my gaze away from the group of teenagers and looked down at my smoothie, which was starting to need a stir of its own.

“What’s up?”

“Do you still like Tyler?”

My eyes snapped to hers. Josh was looking between the two of us, as if this wasn’t a possibility that he had considered before. I could tell by the way that she was looking at me that it was a genuine question, not something meant to lay all my secrets out in front of Josh.

“Um, yeah. I do.”

“How did I not pick up on that?” Josh sighed.

“I try not to talk about it often,” I laughed. “The less people know that I have a huge crush on my best friend, the better it is for all of us.”

“How long have you liked him?”

“A few months or so. It started developing during spring break, but by the time summer rolled around and we started to spend more time together, there was no going back.”

“Does he know how you feel?”

“No, I try not to hint at it.”

Josh’s eyebrows furrowed, “Why not?”

“It’s awkward, I guess, and I never really got the vibe that he felt the same.”

Josh shifted a little so that now both of his elbows were rested on his knees. He and I had never been that close, mostly due to the fact that he and Sav had only been dating for just under a year and I had been hesitant to get close to him until I knew it was serious, so I was surprised by his level of investment in my love life.

“What if he’s just as scared as you to hint at his feelings?”

I fiddled with the plastic rim of my smoothie cup lid. “I guess I had never thought of it that way before.”

Josh leaned back in his chair and put his arm back where it had been behind Sav. After a long sip of his smoothie, he continued talking.

“Sometimes you have to take risks when it comes to feelings. I wasn’t sure that Sav felt the same way I did, but I asked her on a date anyway and now look where we are.”

Josh turned to Sav with a dorky grin, but she was looking at him with a confused expression.

“Josh, I came into Guitar Center like three times a week. How could you think I wasn’t into you?”

“For awhile there I thought you were just really into drums!”

“Yes, because you worked with the drums, dummy,” Sav laughed, leaning into Josh’s shoulder.

“Ok, yeah, maybe I should have picked up on that,” he said. He moved his arm forward so that it was now resting on Sav’s shoulders rather than the chair. “Anyway, my point is, it might not be such a bad idea for you to start hinting at your feelings.”

“And how do I do that?” I asked. Flirting had never really been a skill of mine.

“Go into Guitar Center three times a week,” Sav snorted.

“Or just make little forms of physical affection, like touching his arm or something.”

“But if he’s my best friend, isn’t he going to think that’s normal?”

“Yeah, they kind of already act like a couple,” Sav interjected.

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, come on. You always sit next to one another and get your legs all tangled up and Tyler laughs at all your jokes and you tease him all the time. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you two were already together.”

“So what I’m hearing is that they both like one another but are too afraid to admit it?” Josh asked.

“Pretty much.”

“That’s not the case,” I frowned.

My phone buzzed against the metal table, allowing me a temporary escape from Josh and Sav grilling me. I flipped it over and checked the notifications. Among a few from Tumblr, there was a text from Tyler.

Tyler: are you at the house?

Kae: no. sav and josh came and picked me up to get smoothies and hang out for awhile. why do you ask?

“Who is that?” Sav asked.

“Tyler,” I said, knowing that answer definitely wasn’t going to help my case.

“What did he say?”

“He asked if I was at the house.”

“Why?”

“Um, because…”

Tyler: i’m at band practice and we were debating going a little longer, but i would rather come home and hang out with you if that was a possibility.

“...he was trying to decide if he should keep practicing with the band or come home early to hang out with me instead.”

Sav immediately threw her hands in the air. “What did I tell you?”

I was too busy typing out a text to respond to her immediately.

Kae: oh yeah, i’m not at the house. i’ll be home for dinner though, so we can hang out after that :)

“He probably just wants to make sure I’m not bored out of my mind or stuck with his family.”

“Uh huh, totally,” Sav said, shooting me a look. “Not because he genuinely wants to spend time with you or anything.”

Tyler: perfect :)

“Shut up,” I laughed, setting my phone back down on the table.

“I’m just saying,” Sav shrugged. “There could be something there.”

*     *     *

I ended up getting back to the house earlier than intended, although I was pretty sure part of that was Sav’s doing. She claimed that her mom needed her and Josh back to their house by four, even though she had claimed they were free until I had to get back when they had initially picked me up. Not that I minded, I was looking forward to spending more time with Tyler.

“There you are!” he grinned as I opened the door. He had been sprawled out on the couch when I walked in the door, but in a matter of seconds he had gotten up and joined me in the entryway. “I’ve been bored out of my mind.”

“You know it’s not my job to entertain you, even if I’m staying here,” I laughed as I kicked off my shoes. “Besides, weren’t you at band practice until a little while ago?”

“Yeah, but that’s been stressful lately because of Chris and Nick wanting to leave and stuff.”

“Well, my plan is to just sit around on my laptop until dinner is ready, but you’re free to join me in doing that.”

“Sure, that sounds fun.”

That wasn’t the answer I had been expecting from Tyler, but I was happy to hear it nonetheless. 

“You want to race up the stairs?” Tyler asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

“Always.”

Together, we made an unnecessary amount of noise as we ran up the stairs to the guest room and launched ourselves onto the bed. Tyler beat me by a fraction of a second, but only because I forgot which direction to go at the top of the stairs in my rush to beat him. He laughed as I crashed down next to him.

“Ten bucks my mom makes a comment about us running down the stairs when she comes to get us for dinner.”

“You think that will happen?”

“Definitely.”

“Then I would be dumb to take that bet,” I laughed.

I sat up so that I could grab my laptop from the nightstand and shifted so that my back was against the headboard. Tyler stayed laying down for a moment longer before he sat up and scooted close enough that our arms brushed against one another every time I slid my fingers across the trackpad.

“Hey, speaking of band stuff,” I said as I began to pull up Tumblr. “Sav’s boyfriend is a drummer and a really cool guy. If you need someone to take Chris’ place, he might not be a bad option.”

“It’s starting to look like that might be the case,” he sighed. “I’d love to meet him though, even if we just end up being friends.”

“For sure.”

I began to scroll through Tumblr, catching up on the things that I had missed while I was out with Sav and Josh. Tyler watched over my shoulder, occasionally asking questions about things that popped up. It was nice hanging out with Tyler like this again, just doing something completely mundane but managing to make the most out of it. No wonder him ditching me had been so upsetting, there weren’t many other people in my life that were able to make the most of any situation like Tyler could.

“Who is that again?” he asked, pointing to a photoset that was on the screen.

“For the third time, that is Brendon Urie,” I laughed.

“And what does he do?”

“He’s a musician! Panic! At The Disco? My favorite band?”

“Right, right. I remember now.”

“If you ask about him again, I’m not going to answer.”

“Ok.”

I had scrolled maybe two posts down when another picture of Brendon popped up. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the evil grin that was plastered on Tyler’s face.

“Who is that?” he asked, pointing to the picture that he very obviously recognized.

Although I was smiling, I was determined to stay true to my promise to not answer Tyler if he asked about him again. Tyler, of course, wasn’t planning to make this easy.

“Kae, come on,” he said, drawing out the end. “Who is that?”

I shook my head.

“I’m just trying to recognize the people you like!”

An eye roll.

“Kae,” he whined, leaning his head onto my shoulder.

My smile was wiped in an instant, replaced with panic. I took a deep breath - though not deep enough that Tyler would be able to tell I was intentionally taking a deep breath - and continued to scroll. Tyler and I did stuff like this all the time, so it was no big deal, right?

That is, until I remembered what Sav had said.

“Is it Brendon Urie?” he asked.

“Yes, Ty, it’s Brendon Urie.”

“Ha! I got you to say it.”

I expected Tyler to move his head after he got the answer that he wanted out of me, but instead he continued to lean on me as I scrolled through Tumblr. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I really liked having him this close to me. It was tempting to tilt my head just a little so that it was resting on top of his, but I decided against it. That seemed a little too obvious for my liking.

We stayed like that for at least twenty minutes, just scrolling through my Tumblr with Tyler making occasional comments. Neither of us commented on the fact that he was leaning on me, but neither of us did anything to stop it either. If you asked me, it was a pretty good summary of how our relationship had been up until this point.

“Hey, can I talk to you about something?” Tyler asked.

“Sure,” I said, removing my hand from my laptop. “What’s going on?”

“There's something that I’ve been meaning to tell you for awhile now.”

I sincerely hoped that Tyler couldn’t tell how hard my heart was pounding from where he was laying.

“What is that?”

“So, um, I-”

Tyler was interrupted by his mom knocking on the door. He pulled away from me so fast that he nearly overshot his landing and ended up on the floor on the far side of the bed, but he managed to catch himself just in time to prevent that from happening. I was barely able to contain my laughter from his escapades paired with the panicked look on his face.

“Dinner is ready,” his mom smiled.

“Thanks, we’ll be down soon,” Tyler answered. 

His mom closed the door, none the wiser to what had just been happening. I was sure my cheeks were bright red just from the amount of heat I could feel burning within them and I was glad she hadn’t decided to ask any questions about it.

“Should we go?” he asked, pointing a finger towards the door.

I briefly debated asking Tyler what he was about to say, but decided it was better left unsaid if he hadn’t brought it up a second time. Besides, I wasn’t about to risk making things awkward when he was my only savior during family dinners.

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

*     *     *

I scooped the last bit of melted ice cream from the bottom of my bowl and brought it to my mouth, making obnoxious slurping sounds that I knew would bother Tyler. He looked up from his keyboard and shot me a look, which only made me giggle and nearly get ice cream all over my - well, Tyler’s - sweatshirt.

“If you do that one more time I’m going to smack that spoon out of your hands,” Tyler laughed.

“Lucky for you, that was the last little bit of ice cream I had.”

Tyler mouthed a quiet thank you in the ceiling’s direction before looking back down at his keyboard with a smile. I set my bowl on the desk and scooted further into the middle of the room, giving me room to swing idly from side to side. He watched me for a moment before grabbing a pencil and scribbling some words down.

“Hey, Ty?”

“Yeah?”

“What were you going to ask me earlier?”

Tyler pursed his lips for a moment and drew in a deep breath. After a moment, he reached up and pulled his headphones completely off, letting them hang around his neck.

“It was, um, just something.”

“Just something? Didn’t you say you’ve been meaning to tell me for awhile?”

His nose scrunched up as he scratched at his eyebrow. “Uh, yeah, I did say that.”

“So are you going to tell me?”

“Not tonight.”

I swallowed down the frustration that was starting to bubble in my chest. “Then when?”

“I don’t know. Tomorrow, maybe?”

“And you can’t tell me now because..?”

He smiled to himself, “You’re going to hate me for saying this, but it just doesn’t feel right.”

“And how do you know tomorrow will?”

“I don’t.”

“Tyler.”

“What?”

“Just tell me.”

“I’m not going to do that.”

I pursed my lips and leaned back into the chair, letting my head tilt back until I was looking up at the ceiling. Starting an argument was tempting, but I didn’t want to ruin what little chance there was of Tyler telling me, well, whatever this was before I had to go back home on Monday morning.

“It’ll be worth the wait, Kae. I promise.”

[beanfic]

Apparition Antics

Kae & Sav’s Spooky Special | Masterlist

Warnings: Paranormal activity & some angst

Word Count: 10346

Author’s Note: Here it is! The final part to Kae and I’s spooky special!! This chapter is a long one but that's because it's filled with SO MUCH SPOOKYNESS! Oh, also! Happy Halloween, frens :) Hope you enjoy!!

Tyler’s POV

My alarm played softly from my bedside table, lulling me out of the light sleep that I had been in. Sunlight was just beginning to filter through the curtains, throwing bits of light on the covers around my feet. Suppressing a groan, I rolled over and grabbed my phone from the bedside table. My shoulders dropped in relief when the alarm finally came to a stop.

I dropped my phone down onto the covers, not yet wanting to get out of bed and start the morning. Eight in the morning was much earlier than I was used to waking up, and every part of my body was screaming to stay under my warm covers and go back to bed. My eyes had just started to flutter close when I snapped them open again and pushed myself to a sitting position. There was a strict schedule that we had to follow today, and I wasn’t about to let it be ruined because I wanted to stay in bed just a little longer.

My brain slowly started to wake up as I went through the motions of my morning routine. By the time that I finished brushing my teeth, the temptation to get back in bed had finally subsided. After one last glance in the mirror, I flipped off the light and shuffled my way down the hall to wake up Josh and Y/N.

I stopped outside the door and held my breath, listening carefully for any quiet conversations that I had the potential of interrupting. The only thing I could hear was Josh snoring, so I slowly pushed open the door and peeked my head inside.

My jaw dropped the second that my eyes landed on the two of them. Y/N was pressed up against Josh with their head buried in the crook of his neck, their limbs all tangled up together. They looked so content curled up next to one another that there was no way I could wake them up right now. It would have to wait until after breakfast was ready.

I quietly slipped back out of the room and shut the door behind me, my head still reeling from what I had just seen. A million questions were running through my mind as I walked into the kitchen, but I knew I would have to wait for one of them to wake up before I got any answers. For the time being, all I could do was focus on making pancakes.

The hardwood floors of the kitchen were cold under my feet as I stood over the counter, mixing up pancake batter. It was a recipe Y/N had taught me, way back when we had just become friends and they still lived in Cleveland. They had stayed over one night after a show and the next morning we made pancakes together and had our first real bonding experience. I had been using the recipe ever since, though it was mostly reserved for special occasions like today.

The pan was just beginning to heat up when a door in the hallway creaked. I paused and listened, trying to determine if it was someone waking up or someone breaking into the house. When Josh shuffled into the kitchen a few minutes later with hair sticking out at all angles and a shirt that hadn’t been on him ten minutes ago, I relaxed and went back to doing what I previously had been.

“Good morning,” I smiled, pouring the first of many pancakes into the pan.

“Happy Halloween,” he said as he took a seat in one of the stools.

“How are you feeling this morning?”

“Better than I thought I would,” he laughed. 

“Did you sleep well last night?” I was barely able to contain my knowing smile.

“Yeah, I did, actually.”

There was a pause in conversation as I checked the underside of the pancake. Josh was idly drumming his fingers on the counter as I did so.

“Ok, I need to ask,” I finally said, unable to contain my curiosity any longer. “What happened last night?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb, Josh. I saw you and Y/N this morning all cuddled up in bed.”

“You did?” His expression was shocked at first, but it was quickly overtaken by a shy smile.

“Yeah. I was coming to wake you two up, but you looked so peaceful cuddled up that I decided to wait.”

Josh’s smile grew even more. “I was tempted to stay in bed, just so I could snuggle with them a little longer, but I heard you out here making breakfast and wanted to see if you needed any help.”

“Did you two fall asleep like that?”

“I think so. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I vaguely remember demanding that Y/N cuddle with me.”

“Charming,” I laughed as I flipped a pancake.

“I like to cuddle when I’m drunk! And I was cold.”

“You know I keep spare blankets in the closet in there, right?”

“Yeah, but, you know…”

“Yeah, yeah,” I waved my hand towards him. “Cuddling with the person you like is much more appealing, I get it.”

“Mmmhmm…”

“Did any feelings get confessed last night?” I asked as I plopped the finished pancake onto a plate.

“No. I didn’t want to do it while I was drunk. That’s not very romantic.”

“But you are going to finally tell Y/N how you feel?”

“Well, I don’t know. I was thinking maybe-”

The door in the hallway creaked and Josh’s mouth immediately snapped closed. His ears were already becoming a bright shade of red, despite the fact that Y/N hadn’t even entered the room yet.

“Good morning,” Y/N smiled as they walked into the room, doing a little spin as they did so.

“Someone is in a good mood this morning,” I laughed.

“I slept well last night and today is Halloween, how could I be in a bad mood?”

I turned and wiggled my eyebrows at Josh, who only rolled his eyes and cast them down towards the counter. Y/N was too busy fiddling with a string on their shirt to notice the exchange.

“Alright, now that you two are awake, we have to discuss the plan for today.”

“Let’s hear it, Ty.”

“So this place,” I started, unable to keep the giddy grin off my face. Y/N had left all the ghost hunting planning up to me, which meant they and Josh had no idea what we were in for. “It’s an old high school that was shut down in the 60s after a number of mysterious occurrences. There’s all sorts of reports of athletes getting hurt, teachers seeing and hearing unexplainable things after hours, and even furniture and posters being moved around overnight. For a while people thought it was just students messing around and a number of arrests were made, but it didn’t stop it from happening.”

“Can I have a pancake?” Y/N asked.

“Y/N!” I sighed as I flipped the pancake that was cooking. “I’m in the middle of my spooky story. But yes, you can have a pancake, You too, Josh.”

I allowed them each a moment to grab their pancakes and cover them in various toppings before I continued my story.

“Continuing on, mysterious sightings are still being reported in and around the building. One of the most common reports is seeing a shadowy figure with glowing eyes standing in the windows during sunset. Police have investigated the building on numerous occasions, but nothing and nobody is ever found. It’s supposed to be one of the most haunted places in Ohio.”

“And we’re going there?” Josh asked before stuffing his face with pancake.

“Yes.”

“I’m excited,” Y/N smiled. “I’ve always wanted to find a ghost.”

“I’m sure we’re going to see something scary tonight, ghost or not,” I answered. “And you two better take this seriously. I don’t want you messing around like you usually do.”

“You mean Y/N and I can’t sing for the ghosts this time?” Josh laughed.

“Exactly. I don’t want anything following me back to the house,” I said, pointing my spatula at him.

He held his hands up in defeat. “We’ll be serious, right, Y/N?”

“Serious,” they nodded.

“Good,” I smiled. “Tonight is a big night.”

*     *     *

“Is everything going to fit?” Y/N asked as they watched me try to stuff another box of supplies into the back of my car.

“We’ll probably have to put some of it in the backseat, but we can make it work.”

Y/N’s eyes lit up in an instant. “Shotgun!”

Josh, who was currently leaned halfway into the backseat while he arranged some stuff in his bag, suddenly stood up and shot Y/N a look. “Not fair!”

“Sorry, Josh, you were too slow,” they shrugged.

“But I have way longer legs than you! There’s no way I’m cramming into the backseat with all the ghost stuff.”

“You should have thought of that earlier.”

“Tyler,” Josh sighed. “Help me out here.”

“You two are adults, you can work this out between yourselves without me in the middle of it.”

“Come on, Josh, you always get shotgun because Tyler picks you up first. Can’t you let me have it just this once?”

“Not when we have a three-hour car ride!”

“What if you get it on the way home? Then you’ll have plenty of legroom while you sleep.”

“Legroom doesn’t matter when you’re asleep.”

Tired of listening to their bickering, I came up with an idea that would both put an end to the debate and help with my master plan. While they were too busy paying attention to one another, I grabbed a box of equipment and carried it over to the passenger side of the car. Both of their heads immediately whipped in my direction when they heard the door open.

“You know what? Fine,” I said, dramatically dropping the box into the front seat. “Neither of you get it.”

“But my legs!” Josh said.

I leaned down and scooted the chair all the way forward, then turned to Josh with a grin. “There, all the legroom you could possibly need.”

He mumbled something under his breath before going back to messing with his backpack. Y/N turned to me and raised their eyebrows, but I simply smiled and adjusted my beanie. They gave me a light shove as I walked past them to close the trunk, making me laugh.

“Alright, let’s get in the car and get out of here,” I announced.

Fifteen minutes later, we found ourselves in a parking lot outside of a Columbus Starbucks. I was currently trying to convince Y/N to go inside and order our drinks for us to avoid running the risk of getting recognized, but they were not having any part of it.

“I just don’t understand why I have to go in alone!” they huffed. “You don’t usually care about getting recognized, so why is it a big deal today?”

“I’m just worried about people potentially following us all the way out to the school. Please, Y/N, I’ll pay for your drink.”

They went quiet for a moment, obviously contemplating my offer. After a moment’s pause, they spoke again.

“Alright, fine. But I’m getting a venti.”

“Fair deal,” I said as I dug my wallet out of my pocket.

Y/N took our drink orders - and my money - before getting out of the car and walking into Starbucks, although not without shooting us a look as they did so. Once they were safely inside, I turned around so that I could get a better look at Josh.

“What were you going to say this morning before Y/N woke up?”

Josh’s eyebrows furrowed, “What?”

“You know, I was asking you if you were finally going to tell them how you feel and you said you were thinking maybe something but then they woke up and interrupted you.”

“Oh, right. Um, well, I was just thinking that if the right moment comes up tonight… I might actually finally tell them how I feel.”

I tried my best to contain my visible excitement. “For real? Like, you’re not messing with me?”

His mouth curled up into a smile, “No, I’m not messing with you. I’m starting to think you may have actually been on to something this whole time with them feeling the same.”

“Finally! I told you I was being serious, Josh.”

“I know! I know. It’s just scary, you know? I don’t want to mess up the relationship I have with Y/N.”

“So I’ve heard,” I laughed quietly.

“Exactly,” he chuckled.

Y/N returned with our drinks a few minutes later and then we were back on the road. We had only been on the freeway for a few minutes when Josh pulled out some earbuds and plugged them into his phone.

“Want to listen?” he asked, passing one of them to Y/N.

“What? You two are listening to your own music back there?” I asked, glancing at them in the rearview mirror. “Who am I going to talk to?”

“Guess you shouldn’t have stuck both of us back here,” Y/N said with a satisfied smirk before taking a sip of their drink.

“Besides, we can still talk even with headphones in,” Josh chimed in.

“Yeah, whatever,” I sighed.

At least the drive was only a few hours. Then it would be time for the real fun to begin.

*     *     *

Your POV

You were woken up by Tyler cheerily announcing that you had arrived at your destination. The car shuddered to a stop and you slowly sat up, stretching out all the muscles that had grown tight from the weird position you were sleeping in. It hadn’t been your intention to fall asleep during the car ride, but between Josh’s music, the comfort of his shoulder, and the boys’ quiet conversation, you had been out in an instant.

Grass crunched beneath your feet as you got out of the car and joined the boys near the trunk. The sun was still high in the sky, but it wouldn’t be long before it sunk below the hills and cast all sorts of shadows across the place. You already didn’t like the look of it, between the shattered windows and crumbling bits of architecture. Despite your love of ghost hunting, you still had your hesitations about spending a night in this place.

“Is this legal?” you asked, noticing a nearby “No Trespassing” sign.

“I might have pulled some strings,” Tyler grunted as he grabbed more equipment.

“And by ‘pulled some strings’, do you mean paid someone off?”

He paused. “Maybe.”

You smiled and shook your head. Leave it to Tyler to pay someone off so that he could hunt ghosts that may or may not exist.

“Hey, I’m going to run inside and find a good place for us to set up headquarters. I’ll be back in a bit,” Tyler announced as he scooped up a flashlight.

“Be safe,” you said.

“I will.”

Tyler took off towards the building, leaving just you and Josh for the first time since last night. You were unsure of what to say, so you settled for looking through all the boxes Tyler had packed up to see what equipment he had decided was necessary.

“You missed Tyler’s comment about us sleeping together.”

“What?” you asked, whipping your head around to look at Josh. Your face was already burning from embarrassment. “What do you mean?”

“It was just a joke, since we slept in the same bed last night and then you fell asleep on my shoulder. He didn’t mean anything by it.”

“What an idiot,” you muttered, turning back to the box.

Josh didn’t say anything else. Out of the corner of your eye, you could just make out him rocking back and forth on his heels, hands dug deep into his pockets.

“Oh, um, Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“About last night, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for how I was acting. I know it’s far from the first time you’ve dealt with me drunk, but I was on another level last night. Like, the cuddling and stuff. You didn’t have to do that.”

You stood up and leaned against the trunk of Tyler’s car. Josh was staring down at his feet, but met your eyes when he realized you were looking at him. His mouth briefly curled up into a smile.

“It wasn’t a big deal, Josh. Nothing happened that I was uncomfortable with and it was, uh, actually kind of-”

“Hey!” Tyler called. “I think I found a spot.”

You and Josh shared a look before picking up a box each and heading in Tyler’s direction.

“Nice, is what I was going to say,” you explained before Tyler was within earshot. “It was actually kind of nice.”

“Yeah,” Josh smiled. “I thought so too.”

“You guys aren’t going to believe this,” Tyler smiled as you walked up to him. “This place is crazy. Wait until you see all of it.”

You followed Tyler down a hallway, doing your best to take in all the sights while you still had sunlight coming in through the windows. Thankfully, the three of you only went a short distance until the hall opened up into a cafeteria. 

“This is our home base. What do you think?” Tyler asked, confidently walking closer to the center of the room. You and Josh, on the other hand, hung back a little.

Large windows at either end of the room illuminated the cafeteria, revealing every particle of dust that was currently floating through the air. Most of the tables had been overturned or shoved aside, although there were a few that remained upright and usable. A few posters still hung on bulletin boards around the room, though nearly every one had been ripped or shredded in some capacity. Just thinking about what this room would look like in the dark was enough to send a chill down your spine.

“Creepy,” you finally muttered. Josh nodded along with you.

“We can start setting stuff up along these tables right here,” Tyler said, ignoring your comment. “That should give us plenty of room for the lights and equipment.”

You waddled over to the table and set down the box of things you had been carrying. There was still plenty of boxes that needed to be transported from the car to inside, and you really weren’t looking forward to the multiple trips back and forth. At least you would have the boys to keep you company.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s get the rest of the stuff inside,” Tyler smiled before practically skipping his way back down the hallway. 

An hour later, all of the equipment was finally inside and mostly set up. You and Josh were making casual conversation while Tyler huddled over his equipment and made sure everything was running properly. The only other times you saw him this focused was when he was writing music.

“Ok, I think everything is ready to go,” he said, straightening up. “Why don’t we do a quick walkthrough of the school to get an idea of where everything is and where the best places for cameras are?”

“Sounds good,” you nodded.

“Josh, can you grab the map? It should be in that box right next to you.”

Josh turned around and dug through the box until he found the map Tyler was talking about. It was printed on what looked like a normal sheet of paper, but the back had Tyler’s handwriting all over it. You tried to get a glimpse of it, but Josh passed it off before you had a chance to make sense of any of it.

“What’s on the back, Ty?” you asked.

He flipped it over and looked at it, eyebrows furrowed, as if he had forgotten he ever wrote on it in the first place. “Just some notes, it looks like.” His mouth curled into a partial smile. “I can barely read it.”

You shook your head and grabbed a couple flashlights from the table, passing one off to Josh. He thanked you and immediately checked if the batteries were working.

“Lead the way, Tyler,” Josh said.

Your journey started down the hallway that you had entered the building from. A creepy feeling still lingered, but having a heavy flashlight in your hands helped to take away some of the edge. Josh was also staying close to you, so close, in fact, that your arms kept accidentally brushing up against each other. Thankfully, Tyler was too absorbed in locating good camera spots that he didn’t take notice.

This pattern continued for the next thirty minutes. You and Josh followed behind Tyler, occasionally offering your opinions on a spot for a camera, but mostly just trying to remember the layout of the building. The last thing you wanted was to accidentally get lost in one of the most haunted buildings in Ohio on the scariest day of the year. By the time that you returned to your “home base”, you were already having your reservations about tonight’s ghost hunting.

“Now that you’ve seen the entire building, what do you think?” Tyler asked. He was smiling, which was just about the furthest thing from what you felt like doing right now.

“If there’s anywhere we’re going to find ghosts in Ohio, it’s here,” you sighed. Josh nodded in agreement.

“You guys should probably go set up the cameras before it gets too dark. I can hang back and make sure we’re getting signal on all of them.”

“Did you bring the walkie talkies?” Josh asked.

“Yeah, they’re right here. Keep them on Channel 3 and whatever you do, don’t turn them off, ok?” You nodded as you turned on your walkie talkie and hooked it onto your jeans. Next to you, Josh did the same. “The cameras should be in that box over there. Make sure to let me know which one you’re setting up - the number is sharpied on the side - and then we can make sure the motion sensor is working.”

“Sounds good,” Josh said.

“Here’s the map of all the camera spots. Let me know if you have trouble finding any of them and I can try and direct you,” Tyler explained, hardly taking time to look up from one of his many laptops as he passed it to you. “Also try not to take too long, there’s a lot of stuff we still need to get ready.”

“We’ll be quick,” you added.

“And make sure to mark down where on the map each number is, just so we know.”

“Ty,” you laughed, “we’ve done this before, you don’t need to go over all the instructions every time.”

“Sorry,” he smiled. “Habit.”

“Ok, we’ll be back in a bit.”

Map and flashlight in hand, you and Josh headed off down the first hallway yet again. Your stomach was already flipping at the thought of spending the next half hour with Josh without Tyler’s interruptions, and for a moment you weren’t sure that you would be able to get any words out.

“I’m pretty sure he put the cameras in every remote corner of the school he could find,” you laughed, taking your first look at the map. “Look at this.”

Josh took the map from your hands, making sure to let his fingers brush up against yours. “You know Tyler, he likes to make sure that every inch of a place is being watched.”

“Yeah, but come on! The pool? That’s all the way at the other end of the school, but he also wants us to set one up by this window in the back corner.”

“Hey, it’s just an excuse for us to spend more time together, right?” Josh smiled at you.

You bit down on your lip, glad that the dim light inside was enough to mask most of your embarrassed expression. “Yeah, I suppose that’s a benefit.”

“Ok, I think the first camera spot is up here. You want to grab one of the ones from the box?”

You grabbed a camera from the box and passed it off to Josh, who then got it situated in the correct spot. While he worked on that, you radioed Tyler to let him know what was going on.

“Skeleton, come in,” you said, trying - and failing - to contain a smile at your code names.

“What’s up, Pumpkin?” he answered, voice warped by the walkie talkie.

“We’re setting up camera… what camera is it?”

“Three,” Josh grunted.

“Camera three at location one.”

“Alright, let me know when it’s on.”

You marked down camera three at location one on the map while you waited for Josh to finish setting things up.

“Done,” Josh sighed. “Camera is on.”

“Skeleton, come in.”

“I’m here.”

“Are we reading a signal on camera three?”

“We’re live. Can one of you wave an arm in front of it?”

“Josh?” you asked, turning to him.

Josh stepped away from you and closer to the camera, waving one of his arms slowly in front of it. 

“Alright, we’ve got a video feed. You can move on.”

“Alright. Pumpkin and Alien out.”

You tucked the walkie talkie back into its place on your jeans and fell into step with Josh, who was already beginning to slowly make his way down the hall. When you caught up to him, he took the map from the top of the box and looked over it.

“Where to next?” you asked.

“It looks like we go upstairs and down another hall. Or we could go downstairs, if we wanted to switch things up.”

You were about to answer his question when something behind you rustled. Your head whipped around and you scanned the entire area behind you with the flashlight, searching for what could have caused the noise. The two of you were seemingly alone in the hallway, so you took a deep breath and turned back around.

“You ok?” Josh asked.

“Did you not hear that?”

“Hear what?”

You shook your head. “Nothing, I guess. I’m just wound up.”

“I thought you weren’t scared of stuff like this?”

“I’m not.”

“Then why’d you jump at nothing?” he teased.

“I didn’t jump at nothing! There was a sound.”

“You know I’m going to protect you if we run into something or someone, right?”

“Yeah, because you’re so intimidating,” you smiled.

“Hey! I’m only not intimidating to you because you know me. I can be a scary guy.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Is that a challenge?”

Your eyes went wide. “No, no, please, Josh.”

“I thought you weren’t scared?” he grinned.

“Well, um,” you stammered. “Ok, fine, maybe I’m a little scared.”

Josh walked a little closer to you and wrapped one of his arms around your shoulders, “Don’t worry, I’ve got your back.”

After forty-five minutes of setting up cameras, you were finally on the last one, which just so happened to be the one by the old pool. You weren’t particularly looking forward to the walk it would take to get there, but you were glad that you had Josh to keep you company… and protected from anything that could be lurking in the shadows.

“It’s weird being back in a high school,” you said as you passed another set of lockers. “I think the scariest thing is all the memories it’s bringing up.”

“Did you have a positive high school experience?”

“It was ok. I wasn’t super popular or anything, but I had a good group of friends. Definitely not the best four years of my life or anything. What about you?”

Josh shrugged. “About the same. I was kind of a dorky kid in high school.”

“Same.”

“Did you… date… very many people?”

You turned to look at him, only to realize he was already looking at you. Too shy to make eye contact, you looked down to your feet.

“Not really. My type was too specific for any of the people that I went to high school with.”

“And what is your type?”

“Oh, you know,” you said, a smirk starting to appear on your lips, “people who are nice, aren’t afraid to be themselves, into music, have tattoos and piercings and colorful hair and all that.”

“So… me?” Josh laughed.

“Not everything is about you, Josh,” you joined his laughter as you bumped into his shoulder. “What about you?”

“I dated a couple people, but it was never anything serious.”

“I meant like… what’s your type?”

“Oh, um, right,” he rubbed at the back of his neck with his free hand. “I guess I like people who can make me laugh, they support me in whatever I do, aren’t afraid to be themselves, just someone cool, you know?”

You shifted the box, putting the weight onto your other hip for awhile and to alleviate some of the tension in your shoulders from the question you were about to ask. “Am I cool?”

Josh paused for a moment, “I think you’re the coolest person I know, Y/N.”

You nodded, unsure of how to respond to what he had said. He started to talk again, but before he could get anything out, your walkie talkies crackled.

“This is Skeleton, reporting in.”

Josh sighed as he grabbed the walkie talkie off his hip. “This is Alien. What do you need?”

“Are you two almost done? It’s getting lonely over here.” A pause. “And I’m hungry.”

“We’re going to set up the last camera by the old pool and then we’ll be back.”

“Ok, well hurry. Skeleton out.”

Josh shook his head as he hooked his walkie talkie back onto his jeans.

“If he wants it done faster, he could have helped us out,” he laughed.

“Agreed.”

You went quiet, internally hoping that Josh would once again bring up the conversation you had just been having, but when a minute of silence passed you figured that was wishful thinking. Maybe you had been reading too much into what he was saying.

“Is this it?” he asked as you approached another set of double doors.

“Looks like it,” you answered, nodding towards a sign to the side of the door that read “Pool”.

He started to pull the door open, but stopped halfway through and turned to you. “Stay close to me, ok? I don’t like this room.”

You nodded and followed him into the room. As soon as you stepped over the threshold, he reached back and rested a hand on your arm.

“I’m here,” you said.

“Let’s get in and out of here as fast as we can.”

“Sounds good.”

You followed Josh further into the room, trying to ignore the eerie way that the room echoed with each step that you took. The single camera rattling in the box that you were carrying didn’t do much to help the atmosphere, either. Even with sunlight shining in through the dusty windows, this room felt undeniably creepier than all the rest.

“Where did Tyler want the camera?” Josh asked.

“The far corner, right above the bleachers.”

“Like, on the other side of the room?”

“Mmmhmm.”

Josh sighed and walked in that direction. You took a couple big steps to catch up to him and lightly bumped up against him. He turned towards you and smiled, reassured by your presence.

“Maybe you’re not the one who’s going to have to do the protecting,” you grinned.

“Maybe,” he laughed quietly. “I just hope that none of us have to protect anyone.”

“Agreed.”

Josh grabbed the camera from the box and went through the motions of setting it up while you radioed Tyler to let him know what was going on. As soon as you got the ok, you and Josh started to head back towards home base.

You had only made it about halfway along the pool when something crashed at the far side of the room. Both you and Josh turned around in a panic, frantically searching for the source of the noise, but there was nothing in sight.

“Let’s get out of here,” Josh said.

Before you had a chance to answer, he had clumsily wrapped his free hand around your flashlight hand and was starting to pull you towards the exit. Trying your best not to trip over your feet, you followed after him. Your heart was still pounding from whatever you had heard and having Josh’s hands wrapped around yours was only making it beat even harder.

You were relieved when you finally crashed through the doors and back into the hallway. Although it wouldn’t do much to actually protect you if there was something in the pool room, it felt nice to have a set of doors between you. With a heaving chest, you leaned back against a bank of lockers and looked to Josh.

“That was terrifying,” you sighed.

“Are you ok?” Josh asked, resting a hand on your arm. “I didn’t mean to drag you out of there, it just kind of happened.”

He stepped closer, leaving only about a foot of space in between you. You looked up at him, taking in what you could of his features in the dim light.

“I’m ok. Just a bit shaken up.”

“I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.” Josh’s mouth just barely curled up into a smile.

He started to move closer, until his breath was fanning out across your face. Your heart had returned to pounding in your chest, but now it was for an entirely different reason. Was this really happening? Were you really about to kiss Josh in some abandoned high school that Tyler was taking you ghost hunting in?

Just as your eyes were about to flutter closed, you noticed a blinking light out of the corner of your eye. In a moment of panic, you put a hand on Josh’s chest and shoved him away as gently as you could. He stepped back immediately, stumbling over his words and avoiding eye contact with you.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. I- thought, um, maybe that- I didn’t-”

“Josh,” you whispered. “It’s fine. It’s just…” you nodded towards the camera, hopefully subtly enough that Tyler wouldn’t catch it on the off chance that he was looking at it right now. Josh’s shoulders immediately dropped and he ran a hand through his hair.

“You’d think for someone who wanted us together so badly, he wouldn’t make it so impossible to get a moment alone.”

“Honestly,” you giggled.

“We might as well get back to him before he throws a fit.”

You nodded and tried to mask the disappointment that your kiss would have to wait until later. “Good idea.”

Josh started to walk down the hall and you fell into step with him, feeling a bit more confident about “accidentally” bumping into him now and again. Each time you did, you were met with a smile from Josh and a retaliation. By the time you made it back to your home base, it had almost become a game between you two.

“Ok, wait, before we go in there,” Josh said, stopping you a short distance from the archway that led to the cafeteria. “Are we going to tell him what happened?”

“With the crash? Or the… other thing?”

“The other thing,” Josh smiled.

“Do you think he saw?”

“I have no idea, but he’ll probably immediately make a comment if he did. He doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut about that stuff,” he laughed.

“Ok, true. I say we wait for him to bring it up. You know, payback for all the teasing.”

“This is why I like you.”

With one final nod to each other, you walked back into the home base. Tyler immediately looked up from his computers and over at you.

“I was wondering when you were coming back! You set up that last camera forever ago.”

“There was a lot of ground to cover!” you retorted.

“Uh huh,” Tyler said, shooting the two of you a look.

“Don’t be jealous because we were out having fun,” Josh smiled as he took a seat across from Tyler.

“Who’s to say I wasn’t having fun here?” Tyler stood up straighter and crossed his arms.

“Alright, you two,” you sighed as you tossed the empty box into a corner. “Why don’t we figure out what food to get before you two start arguing too much.”

“We’re not arguing,” Tyler chimed in. “I’m just saying that I had fun here!”

Josh started to open his mouth, but you shot him a look and he quieted down again. This put a satisfied smirk on Tyler’s face, so you gave him a look for good measure too.

“Didn’t one of you mention a Taco Bell just a few minutes away? How does that sound?” you asked.

“Did you have to ask?” Tyler smiled.

“Yeah, Tyler wrote a whole song about it,” Josh smirked.

“Hey! I thought we made a rule that we don’t talk about that.”

“Consider it payback.”

“Ok, who’s going to get the food?” you asked, ignoring their bickering. “Because after that whole Starbucks ordeal today, it’s not going to be me.”

“I can go,” Josh said, already standing up again. “Just let me know what you want.”

The next few minutes were spent deciding what food to get and making sure that Josh had it all written down in his phone so he wouldn’t forget. Once that was settled, Tyler tossed him his keys and Josh wandered off down the hall, still carrying a flashlight in his hand. The sun was rapidly setting and you were trying to enjoy the little bit of light you had left.

“You and Josh seem to be awful friendly,” Tyler said, his eyes never leaving the computer.

Your entire body tensed at his words and you were suddenly very glad that his focus was elsewhere. He had yet to fess up to seeing you and Josh almost kiss on camera, but it wasn’t unlike Tyler to hold onto information until an opportune moment.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You two were pretty tense with each other this morning, aside from you falling asleep on him in the car. It’s nice to see you two getting along again.”

“Right. Yeah.”

“Are you going to tell him how you feel?” Tyler asked, finally looking up from his laptop.

You avoided eye contact, afraid it would give too much information away. If Tyler was asking if you were going to confess, he definitely hadn’t seen what happened between you and Josh. That, or he was playing the long con.

You put on your best plain expression and finally met Tyler’s eyes. “I hadn’t really thought about it. I probably wouldn’t today, just because it’s Halloween and all.”

“What does Halloween have to do with it?”

“Don’t you think it’s kinda dorky to confess your feelings on Halloween? Like, that would be our anniversary forever.”

“Dorky? It’s awesome,” Tyler smiled. “Your anniversary would be on the spookiest day of the year.”

“I guess?”

“But, more importantly, you are going to tell him at some point?”

“I don’t see why I wouldn’t. It’s pretty clear that he feels the same now.”

“And to think, just a few days ago you were telling me you and Josh were nothing more than friends.”

“A lot has changed since then!” you said, unintentionally raising your voice. It echoed a little across the room. “Two days ago I hadn’t held his hand during a scary movie or spent an entire night with him complimenting me or slept in the same bed as him or almost-” you caught yourself just in time to avoid telling Tyler the one thing you didn’t want him to know. He picked up on your change in demeanor.

“Almost what?” he asked.

“Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

“Almost what, Y/N? Tell me.”

“I’m not going to tell you, Ty.”

“Please? I won’t tell Josh you told me.”

“I don’t care what Josh knows. I don’t want you to know.”

“Don’t want me to know what?” Tyler said. He was growing more desperate.

“No.”

“Something did happen at my house, didn’t it? What did you two do last night?”

“Nothing! Nothing happened.”

“You’ve always been a bad liar.”

“I’m not lying! Nothing happened last night.”

“Today?”

“No.”

“Liar.”

“Tyler, can we just drop this please?”

Tyler finally calmed down. It wasn’t often that you used his full name, which let him know how serious you were about not discussing this any further. He directed his attention back to his laptops, and after a bit of silence offered for you to come check out what he was seeing on the cameras, which wasn’t much.

At least, for now.

*     *     *

Josh’s POV

“What time is it?” Y/N asked as they pulled on a headlamp.

“Two in the morning. Perfect time to start ghost hunting,” Tyler grinned as he did the same.

“Yeah, perfect,” I said, taking a quick glance around the room.

Although Y/N and Tyler were big on ghost hunting, I always had my reservations when it came to adventures like this. My anxiety was bad enough as it was, and walking around dark buildings trying to find things that could potentially hurt us didn’t exactly do much to help it. Regardless, I knew how much it meant to the two of them to have me come along, so I joined along on one or two trips a year to please them.

“How do I look?” Y/N asked, giving Tyler and I a little spin.

“Amazing,” I laughed. “The headlamp really completes the look.”

They smiled and turned to Tyler, who simply gave them a thumbs up.

“Alright, I think we’re ready to go. Do you two have all your stuff together?”

I double checked that I had my walkie talkie and the equipment that Tyler had put me in charge of before giving him a nod. Next to me, Y/N did the same.

“Then let’s go.”

Tyler led the way down the hall, allowing Y/N and I to lag behind. They were staying close to me which I was thankful for. The last thing I wanted was to get split up from the other two in a place that I could barely remember the layout of. Even though I ran regularly, I didn’t really want to put those skills to use in this setting.

The school had a completely different atmosphere now that it was dark, even with the combined light of our headlamps. Bent and rusted lockers were around every corner, looming out from the darkness. Dust particles and cobwebs floated freely through the air, occasionally being kicked up by our feet as we passed. There was even the occasional bird that flew around overhead, the sound of its wings amplified by the empty space.

“Where are we going?” Y/N finally asked. The sudden sound of their voice almost made me jump.

“I wanted to check out the window where people report seeing the figure. You know, see if we can get an EMF reading or a temperature change or something,” Tyler answered.

I watched as Y/N nodded in agreement. A brief desire to voice my concern bubbled in my chest, but it quickly subsided again. There was no way Y/N - or more likely, Tyler - was letting me get out of this one.

“You doing ok, Josh?” Y/N asked quietly.

“Yeah, I’m ok. Just a little nervous.”

They glanced at Tyler for a moment before turning back to me and taking hold of my hand. “It’s ok, I’ve got your back.”

I squeezed their hand as a silent thank you while we continued to walk down the hall. Eventually, Tyler brought us to the window where the figure was rumored to be seen, which just so happened to be inside a classroom full of toppled desks and chairs and countless cobwebs. Y/N dropped my hand as we walked into the room, not wanting to run the risk of being seen by Tyler. Part of me wanted to grab it again, not caring what Tyler would say, just to have the comfort.

“Josh, can I get a temperature read on the room?” Tyler asked.

I grabbed the thermometer from my bag and aimed it towards the other side of the room.

“61.”

“And what about over here?”

“58.”

“That’s a significant drop!” Tyler grinned. I had to admit, as much as ghost hunting scared me, I did enjoy seeing how excited he got over little discoveries like this.

“To be fair, we are standing by a window,” Y/N chimed in.

Tyler’s face fell in an instant. “Ok, true, but it’s worth noting. We can try out the thermal cameras for awhile and then do the EMF reader.”

“Sounds good.”

I slowly wandered around the room while Tyler got the thermal camera ready. There were a few old posters on the walls, but most of them had been washed out by the sun and were mostly unreadable now. Looking at them gave me a weird feeling in my stomach, like I was reading something that I wasn’t supposed to.

“Hey, Josh, come back over here and stand next to Y/N.”

I slowly wandered back towards Tyler and Y/N and did as he said. He had a huge smile on his face as he aimed the thermal camera in our direction.

“This new thermal camera is awesome! Way better than the old one. Hey, Y/N, can you get a little closer to Josh.”

“Yeah.”

Y/N stepped closer to me so that their arm was almost pressed up against mine. I could feel my face starting to heat up from embarrassment, I just hoped that-

“Josh! Dude, your face just got way redder,” Tyler grinned. “I can see it on the camera.”

-Tyler didn’t notice.

“I’m nervous,” I muttered, not that it really mattered. Y/N already knew exactly why I would be getting embarrassed.

“Yeah, ok,” he scoffed.

I rolled my eyes and stepped away from Y/N. They walked over and stood next to Tyler so that they could get a better look at the thermal camera, but I didn’t really care. The less I knew about what else was in the room, the better.

“Do you see that?” Tyler muttered.

“The red spot?”

“Yeah, in the corner.”

“I see it.”

I turned and looked in the direction that they were looking. All I saw was some old books sitting on a dusty shelf.

“Is it still there?” Y/N asked.

“Nope, it’s gone.”

A chill ran down my spine. I didn’t like the sound of that one bit.

“Get me an EMF reader,” Tyler said, giving Y/N’s arm a light tap.

They grabbed one from their bag and passed it off to Tyler. He held it up and started to walk towards the corner where they had seen… whatever it was.

“Is it doing anything?” Y/N whispered.

Tyler shook his head.

“Ask a question.”

Tyler cleared his throat. “Is there anything here with us?”

The room was silent as we waited for something to happen. I could see Y/N looking at me out of the corner of my eye, but my focus was on the EMF reader. It was hovering around green right now, but I was just waiting for it to spike at any moment.

“Ask again,” Y/N suggested.

Again, Tyler cleared his throat. “Is there anything here with us?”

The EMF reader spiked to red before immediately dying down again. Tyler spun around and looked between Y/N and I. All of the color had drained from his face.

“Are you ok?” I asked.

“What was that?” he asked quietly.

“It probably picked up on something else,” Y/N said, quickly searching for a reasonable explanation. “Like your walkie talkie.”

“My walkie talkie isn’t on.”

“Try it anyway.”

Tyler grabbed his walkie talkie and held the EMF reader up to it. He waited for a few seconds, but nothing came up. It stayed on green the entire time.

“Maybe it was a fluke,” Y/N chimed in. “Why don’t we try another question and see what happens?”

Tyler nodded and turned back around, holding the EMF reader up once again.

“Are you the one who stands in the windows at sunset?”

It was silent again. The light stayed at green for a few seconds, and for a brief moment I was really starting to believe that the first time had been a fluke. Then it suddenly spiked up to red again.

Tyler dropped the EMF reader and jumped away from it. It hit the ground and bounced once before landing face up. The light was still dancing between green and yellow.

“Are you ok? Did something hurt you?” Y/N asked, reaching out to put a hand on Tyler’s shoulder.

“No, no, it just scared me. I’m fine.”

“It’s still going off,” I added.

Tyler and Y/N both turned to look at the EMF reader. The lights were still blinking rapidly.

“I think we should get out of here,” Y/N said. “I’d rather not mess with… whatever this is and there’s plenty more of the school to explore.”

“Agreed,” Tyler nodded.

He ventured into the middle of the room just long enough to pick up the EMF reader and pass it back off to Y/N. As soon as we had that, we quickly gathered up our things and got out into the hall, making sure to shut the door behind us.

“I knew this place was supposed to be haunted…” Tyler said, “but I never expected anything like that to happen.”

“Let’s just stick together for now and see what there is to see,” Y/N answered.

I was the last one to chime in, “I like that idea.”

*     *     *

“Three am, you know what that means,” Tyler said, checking the time on his watch.

I swallowed hard. After spending the last hour walking around the school with Y/N and Tyler - occasionally stopping to use the thermal camera or EMF reader but not finding much - I had finally calmed down some after the window man incident. It didn’t help that I already knew exactly what Tyler was going to say next.

“It’s prime ghost time. We should split up so we can cover more ground.”

“Who’s going where?” Y/N asked.

“I can take the upstairs since that seems to have the most activity. You two can decide between downstairs and the other end of the school.”

“Josh?” Y/N asked, turning to me. “Do you have a preference?”

“You can take whatever you want.”

“Why don’t you take the downstairs? And I can take the other end over by the pool.”

“Are you sure?”

Y/N smiled at me, “I’m sure.”

“Ok.”

“Remember, keep your walkie talkies on Channel 3 at all times. Do not turn them off for whatever reason and radio in with your location if you need help,” Tyler said.

“Got it,” Y/N nodded.

“Also with any spooky findings,” he added with a smile. “Alright, you know the drill.”

“Hands in,” Y/N sighed.

The three of us put our hands together. Tyler looked around the circle before starting his countdown.

“3… 2… 1... “

“Spooky squad!” we all chanted together.

“Alright, now let’s go find some ghosts!” Tyler grinned, doing a little jump as he did so.

We all double checked that our walkie talkies were working before splitting up. I headed downstairs and, now that I was out of sight, pulled out the backup flashlight that I had in my bag. Tyler and Y/N always said I was excessive, but I wanted as much area around me to be illuminated as possible.

My walkie talkie crackled, making me jump.

“This is Skeleton reporting in. I’m walking by the room we were in and I swear there’s a cold draft coming from under the door. It’s freezing.”

“This is Alien. Copy.”

“Pumpkin here. You better not open that door.”

“Come on, Pumpkin, not even I’m that stupid.”

“I’ve seen you do questionable things.”

“Ok, but none of those involved a spirit potentially following me home.”

“Point taken.”

“Alright, just checking in. Skeleton out.”

“Alien out.”

“Pumpkin out.”

I hooked my walkie talkie back onto my jeans and continued down the hallway. There was a door at the end of the hallway that was partially cracked, so I decided to check it out. Most of the rooms in this building were shut tight, so there had to be a reason that this one wasn’t, right?

My heart started to beat harder with each step that I took towards the door. There was a little patch of light that was just visible inside, probably from the moon. Other than that, I couldn’t make anything out.

I had just started to open the door when something rushed over my head, making me drop to the ground. My heart was pounding in my chest now, so hard that I could hear it in my ears. In an attempt to figure out what that had been, I turned my flashlight down towards the end of the hall in the direction the thing had gone. There was just enough light for me to be able to make out a bird rounding the corner. My shoulders dropped out of relief and I laid back on the floor until my breaths returned to normal.

“This is Alien, checking in. A bird just flew out of one of the rooms and scared the crap out of me. Keep an eye out.”

“This is Pumpkin. Copy.”

“Skeleton. Copy.”

This pattern continued for the next thirty minutes or so. I continued to wander around the downstairs of the school, doing more exploration than I was ghost hunting. As long as Y/N and Tyler were involved, I was willing to participate, but there was no way I was going to actively seek out ghosts on my own.

“This is Pumpkin, checking in. How is everyone doing?”

“This is Alien. I’m doing alright.”

“Same here. Skeleton?”

I stood in place, waiting to move until we got an answer from Tyler. He was usually pretty quick to check in when asked, so this silence from him was unnerving.

“Skeleton? You there?” Y/N asked again.

Still nothing.

“I’ll go upstairs and see if I can find him. Stay where you are, Pumpkin.”

I hooked my walkie talkie back onto my jeans and started to head in the direction of one of the staircases. Although the school was big, it wasn’t so big that I wouldn’t be able to find Tyler in a timely manner. My only concern was the potential of having to go in the ghost room alone. That wasn’t my ideal situation by any means.

Just as I reached the top of the stairs, there was a loud crash from the other side of the school. The sound echoed through the halls, bouncing off walls. It was followed shortly after by Y/N yelling, obviously scared by whatever was happening. I stood frozen at the top of the stairs, trying to decide if I should go look for Tyler or make sure Y/N was ok.

Not wanting to put off a decision any longer, I headed in Y/N’s direction since they seemed to be in more immediate danger. They didn’t usually yell when they were scared, so that alone was enough to have me worried enough to make sure they were ok first. Besides, Tyler was prone to going off to do things on his own. He was probably fine.

Right?

My feet carried me quickly down the hall towards the source of the sound. If I remembered the layout of the school correctly, I would be getting there in less than a minute. I guess there was a benefit to all my running.

I quickly rounded a corner, only to immediately spot Y/N who was coming down the same hallway. There was just barely enough time for me to slow down before we completely collided into one another. My back was on the floor in seconds and Y/N was pressed on top of me, the two of us just barely separated by their arms.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t expect you to be running this way,” they said, the tiniest hint of a smile on their face.

“I wanted to make sure you were ok.”

Y/N’s hands moved to the side of my face and before I knew it, their lips were on mine. I moved my arms to hold onto their waist, steadying them in the awkward position that we were in. Their lips were soft and I could feel every bit of tension and longing that we had shared over the last few days within it. Even though were laying on the floor in some remote, abandoned building, I never wanted it to end.

I started to deepen the kiss, but Y/N pulled away and rolled off of me. They helped me up to a sitting position and brushed some of the dust off my shoulders.

“We need to find Tyler.”

“You’re right,” I said, all the excitement of the kiss wearing off as I remembered the situation we were in.

“But before we do that…”

Y/N leaned over and gave me another quick kiss. I was unable to keep the giddy smile off my face afterwards, even as we stood up and started to head towards the stairs.

“Skeleton, this is Pumpkin. Please report in.”

The walkie talkie crackled hardly a second later.

“This is Skeleton. I’m at home base. Get back here asap.”

“He’s ok,” Y/N sighed, immediately putting their walkie talkie away. “He must have found something big, let’s get back there.”

Y/N and I quickly made our way back to the cafeteria, both of our minds reeling from both the kiss and the excitement of whatever Tyler had potentially found.

Tyler’s face lit up the moment that we stumbled into the cafeteria, our chests heaving. He quickly beckoned us over to his computers.

“You guys will never believe what the cameras picked up. It has to be one of the scariest things that I’ve ever seen,” he grinned as we grew closer. “Come look.”

Y/N and I took a spot on either side of Tyler. He had one of the video feeds up with a timestamp that was hardly more than ten minutes ago. After confirming that we were both ready to see this footage, he hit play and stepped back.

The video showed an empty hallway for the first few seconds, then I came barreling out of the darkness on one part of the screen. Shortly after, Y/N appeared. All of the information quickly pieced together in my mind and I bit down nervously on my lip. My face only continued to burn more and more as the rest of the video played, showing everything from Y/N falling on top of me to us sharing a second kiss.

“Can you believe that?” Tyler laughed, still keeping up his act. “Terrifying.”

“Oh my gosh,” Y/N sighed, burying their face in their hands. “I can’t believe you, Tyler.”

“You can’t believe me? I’m not the one that took three days to finally fess up about their feelings! Do you know how hard I was trying to get the two of you to do it?”

“Is that why you were being so weird?” I asked.

“Yes! My whole plan was to get one of you to finally admit how you felt by the end of our spooky extravaganza and it worked!”

“That explains so much…” Y/N said.

“I got Josh to flirt with you by throwing pumpkin seeds, I pretended to sleep during the movie - and then actually fell asleep -, I forced you guys into a couple’s costume, I slammed that locker door to scare Y/N and get Josh to come running…”

“That was you?” Y/N asked. “Do you know how bad you scared me?”

“But it worked! Look at you two now!” he said with a proud smile.

“Tyler, listen, I really appreciate all you did, but you really didn’t have to get into the middle of all this.”

“I disagree,” he said, crossing his arms. “You two were adamant that the other one didn’t feel the same so I needed to step in to make sure you did know.”

“At least we don’t have to worry about him doing it again in the future.”

“True,” I nodded. “Alright, now how about we pack up our stuff and get out of here? I’d really rather not spend anymore time in this place than I have to.”

“Agreed,” Tyler nodded. “Let’s pack up the stuff and go.”

*     *     *

The sun was just beginning to come up as we got closer to Columbus. Y/N was resting on my shoulder yet again, although this time I was able to shamelessly hold their hand too. We were listening to my headphones again, much to Tyler’s dismay, as we enjoyed the first calm moment since we had arrived at the building the night before.

“Hey, Josh?” Y/N whispered.

“Yeah?”

“We’re like… together, right? Officially?”

“If you want to be.”

“I want to be,” they said, giving my hand a light squeeze.

“Then we’re together.”

“As of Halloween? Or today?”

“What do you think? Because we kissed today, but we kind of had our whole moment yesterday.”

“Whole moment?” Tyler asked.

“Tyler,” I laughed. “Can you not interrupt for once?”

“Sorry, but you owe me that story.”

“That’s fair.”

“Ok, as you were,” Tyler said, waving one of his hands at us.

“Anyway,” I smiled. “What do you think?”

“I vote Halloween. It’s spookier.”

“And special,” I said, leaning my head onto Y/N’s.

“Yeah,” they smiled. “Spookily special.”

***

Tag list: @topownsmyheart @tylersheavydirtysoul @wearebxnditos @gaiatheroyalrabbit

[ohprettyweeper-moved]

Mile High

Summary: Tyler finds a way to distract you when you freak out over turbulence during a plane ride.  Pairing: Tyler x Reader Word Count: 695 Warnings: the distractions are a little *ahem* provocative, i suppose one could say? might want to have a fan handy, just in case.  Request: alright, tyler request: maybe they’re on a long flight and the reader and/or tyler is coming up with little ways to bother the other one because they’re bored out of their mind and yeah ... - @takenvysleep okay, i have to apologize because this went a different direction, thanks to another prompt i saw on pinterest. please don’t hate me, kae! 

Requests are currently closed. 

GIF found via Google Image search. 

When you started dating Tyler, you were too excited about being with such an amazing man, you didn’t even think about the traveling that might be involved when you went on the road with him. 

The first time you traveled by plane was on the way to a festival in Europe. Flying was not something you enjoyed doing to begin with, but flying overseas was going to be even worse. 

“Don’t worry,” Tyler said, holding your hand as you waited in line to board the plane, “I’m gonna be right by you the whole time, you took your chill pill once we got through security, so I’m sure you’ll be asleep most of the time, anyway.”

You nodded. Tyler was right, but that didn’t ease your nerves much. At least this plane was bigger, and you had enough room to get comfortable. With your carry-on under the seat in front of you, your headphones projecting your calming playlist into you ears, and Tyler’s hand holding tight to yours, you sat back and waited for the plane to take off. 

You were asleep before the pilot completed the ascent above the clouds. Tyler tucked the fleece blanket from your bag around your shoulders, then settled back to nap out the trip with you. 

The eight-hour flight was almost over, but turbulence during the descent startled you from your deep sleep. You pulled the blanket tighter around you and squeezed Tyler’s hand. 

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty.” He kissed your cheek. “We’re almost there.”

“We’re gonna die before we get there! What the hell is happening?”

Tyler rubbed a hand over your back. “It’s just some turbulence, Y/N. It’s gonna be fine.”

You gripped the armrest tight. It was not going to be fine, you were convinced. This was the worst part of flying. Maybe you should have taken two pills. 

“I’m glad you’re awake,” Tyler continued. “I was getting bored. You slept forever.”

“I was drugged.” 

“Well, still.” Licking his lips, Tyler leaned over to you. Your eyes were squeezed shut, and you were trying to breathe through the anxiety of the rough descent of the plane. With his lips close to your ear, Tyler said, “We’ll be on the ground before you know it.”

A perfectly innocent sentence, but when he said it in that voice — the one that induced chills all along your spine and a tingling in your belly — the statement was anything but innocent. 

Your eyes shot open; you gripped the armrest tighter, but it had nothing to do with turbulence this time. “What are you doing?”

“Distracting you,” he replied, matter-of-factly, pushing a strand of hair out of your face. He let a slight smirk tug up either end of his mouth as his fingers floated down your jawline, extending the duration of the chills tensing up your back. Though Tyler’s hands were mostly soft, years of playing the ukulele and guitar and a myriad of other stringed instruments had roughed up his fingers. The contrast got to you every time. 

Without a though, you leaned closer to him; Tyler’s head rested against your temple. To anyone else, it seemed as though he was simply comforting you during the continued turbulence. His breath against the tiny hairs at the back of your neck told you different. 

“Still thinking about the turbulence?” Tyler asked, still in that voice, and this time with his hand gripping your upper arm — not exactly gently, but not overly rough, either. Just enough to let you know he was in control. 

You swallowed hard, though your mouth was dry. “Not exactly.”

“Good,” Tyler responded. 

Before too much longer, the pilot had brought the plane and all of its passengers safely onto the ground. While you waited for everyone to get off the plane, you huffed and tapped your foot impatiently. 

“Anxious to get to the hotel, babe?” Tyler asked, unable to stifle his laughter. 

You narrowed your eyes at him. “It’s your fault, you know.”

Tyler nodded and pulled you close to kiss your temple. With that voice close to your ear again, he replied, “Trust me. I’m perfectly aware of what I’ve done.”

[tinymixtapes]

Column: Favorite Rap Mixtapes of November & December 2018

With a cascade of releases spewing from the likes of DatPiff, LiveMixtapes, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud, it can be difficult to keep up with the overbearing yet increasingly vital mixtape game. In this column, we aim to immerse ourselves in this hyper-prolific world and share our favorite releases each month. The focus will primarily be on rap mixtapes — loosely defined here as free (or sometimes free-to-stream) digital releases — but we’ll keep things loose enough to branch out if/when we feel it necessary. (Check out October’s installment here.) Soooooo many dope mixtapes these past two months that even as TMT’s year-end coverage wrapped up like gifts bursting from Santa’s sack, our squad still jumped at the chance to pile on some final blurbs of 2018 before the ball-drop. “Overbearing?” Maybe. “Hyper-prolific?” Definitely. Multiple puns in that first sentence? Two for the price of one, hon. To that, before we get into our November and December favs, here are some “honorable mentions” that didn’t get a write-up below but are no less deserving of a spin this New Year’s Eve: Semiratruth - WAIT!, Demahjiae - Ghetto Blessings, SPNDA x Kae Tea - Mosaic EP Lil Durk - Signed to the Streets 3, City Girls - Girl Code, The Diplomats - Diplomatic Ties, Roc Marciano - Pimpstrumentals, Grimm Doza & SpaceGhostPurrp - The Haunting in New Jersey, Wiardon - Numba1Viktim, Chris Crack - Just Gimme A Minute and Thanks Uncle Trill, Bloodmoney Perez - Time is a Motherfucker, CL King - Waiting 4, and Defcee - A Mixtape As God Intended, Vol. 1 … also, three (!!!) Young Thug leaks. –Samuel Diamond --- Red Daughter, Trap Funk & Alivio - Red Funk Alivio 2 [STREAM] It’s mixtapes like this one that have us quietly missing the days when the word “rap” wasn’t in this column’s title. W/o wasting too many words justifying this tape’s inclusion, let’s just say rap is a big part of it. But so too are Afrocentrism, feminism, indigenous pride, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Brazil, baile funk, Jersey club, house, footwork, and many more elements than an admittedly limited worldview can readily identify. One hesitates to revisit clichés like the dance after the revolt or “if this doesn’t get you moving, you’re already dead,” but, well, while Google Translate tells us that alivio is Portuguese for relief, our ears, eyes, and noses tell us that the club is flooding with oppressor blood. If you missed the first drop, catch up. –Samuel Diamond --- Tommy Genesis - Tommy Genesis [STREAM] We the undersigned/unwashed jabberers at TMT have a tastynasty habit of measuring years out in loosely-themed song mixes. I bet some super astute comment section glob thinks it’s an arbitrary habit. I humbly submit that when we cycle artifacts through a series of spaces, patterns emerge. Assumptions get split. Moods and usages cross and swerve. The exceptional artifacts fit every space. Tommy Genesis, the Vancouver rapper’s debut album, pumps blood and caresses muscles like GYM, cycles want until it subsumes self, a party in the VOID. “Drive” flecks acoustic strings at the CLIFF’s edge and Charlie Heat’s ballast production on “Play With It” turns the ALLEY concave, sends come-on invocations city-wide, supercharged fuel for the COUPE. Tommy Genesis sounds like a whole damn year — wanting more is loving living. –Frank Falisi --- Peewee Longway - State of the Art [STREAM] A glaring omission from our Favorite Cover Art feature (putting him at two for the year), State of the Art finds Peewee Longway rapping as well as he ever has, retaining his distinctive style while adapting to the ever-evolving sound of the moment. Longway’s sound has always tracked the mainstream not directly but as a point of divergence; while likely not distinct enough to make him anyone’s absolute favorite rapper, he’s well-positioned for the reliable production of quality, personable raps. State of the Art is split between showpieces for relatively stock guest spots from the likes Gucci or members of Migos, and far more idiosyncratic one-offs; “Lets Be Real” (with Maxo Kream) is a Molly anthem reminiscent of some of Longway’s stranger inclinations, while “Top of the Bank” marries an Otis Redding interpolation and a cooing, celebratory hook without either seeming out of place. Longway’s more likely to retire from rap (yet again) than blow up any time soon, but State of the Art is more than enough proof that the roundest rapper working has got plenty left to give. –Corrigan B --- Adé Hakim - On To Better Things [STREAM · DOWNLOAD] In a year of SlumsNYC triumphalism — see the series of landmark releases by navy blue, King Carter, MIKE et al., culminating with Earl Sweatshirt’s Some Rap Songs — Adé Hakim a.k.a. Sixpress has been like a silent partner to the movement. Featured on most of the aforementioned and having released a couple of short but no less notable mixtapes on his own this year, Hakim closes out an already-headway-making 2018 with his most complete and progressive work to date in the aptly titled On To Better Things. Low-key, high-impact beats, rhymes, and life insights from the birthplace of hip-hop coalesce here in a freely collective but clearly self-defined gestalt. Where do we go from this? Just listen. –Samuel Diamond --- AJ Suede - Darth Sueder II: Goth Marciano [STREAM] Don’t let your current intake of “lo-fi” hip-hop begin and end with Earl’s latest album. Rapper/Producer AJ Suede has perfected his own take on the subgenre with his latest tape, Darth Sueder II, chopping lightly treated soul samples to set his seasick verses adrift on a lemon-lime sea. What he’s doing sonically isn’t boundary-breaking or avant-garde, but his ear for memorable loops that settle into the backdrop is impeccable. On “Lovable,” a meandering organ shuffles against hi-hats that eke out what should be an un-rappable rhythm; somehow, though, it’s the perfect vehicle for Suede to wax romantic about autumn leaves before launching into asides about gentrification and white people who are too quick to call the cops. Ideas are scattered throughout the brief tracks, but each one’s focused, bridged by some of my favorite punchlines in recent memory (“I was in that county fair/ Like that kid apparently.”) If you’re not scared off by references to esoteric Christianity and MK ULTRA, give Goth Marciano a spin — it’s a fresh take on minimalistic East Coast hip-hop, especially for someone often entrenched in the distorted cloud rap favored by his brethren in the Underground Dust Funk collective. –Jude Noel --- Big Twins - Grimey Life [STREAM] Although Big Twins f.k.a. Twin Gambino has experienced something of a second life thanks to today’s boom-bap revival, one need look no further than the guestlist on this tape to recognize his Infamous Mobb credentials. In addition to features from fellow Infamous rappers Godfather Pt. 3 and Ty Nitty, as well as Mobb affiliate Big Noyd, Grimey Life includes a posthumous appearance by Prodigy, which finds the late icon far from phoning it in, with lines such as “I handle bars like lifers or motocross bikers.” For those keeping track, Havoc also lends a verse (to Knxwledge-produced eulogy “Memories”), and The Alchemist produces the fittingly ghostly “Phantom of the Opera.” In spite of these bigger names and many other features, the project is first and foremost a product of Big Twins whose often imitated but never duplicated voice remains the unmistakable audio definition of grime — inflicted pain inflected. –Samuel Diamond --- Bbymutha - Muthaz Day 3 [STREAM] The cover art of Muthaz Day 3 is a photo of Bbymutha with her two sets of twins all dressed in red robes, surrounded by candles and sitting on what appears to be a pentagram. You’re in her domain now. Welcome to a world full of sinister instrumentals and trap beats that slither underneath the Chattanooga rapper’s spellbinding flow; a world where a single mom with two sets of twins doesn’t have to be bound by the traditional ideas of what a parent should or shouldn’t be; a world where confidence is the lifeblood of all things. On Muthaz Day 3, Bbymutha continues to champion her independence and forge ahead on a path that she’s laying brick by brick, all by herself. –Sam Tornow --- DaBoii - Neva Lookin Back [STREAM] We should be thankful that this was even made into a playlist. For a little over two years, the members of Bay Area juggernaut SOB X RBE have operated as an essentially YouTube-only outfit; while enjoyable, both recent albums (GANGIN and GANGIN II) scan more as fulfillments of label obligations than as faithful documents of the group’s most essential, often online-only work. As obsessives were left to parse the steady stream of loosies from individual members and all possible combinations thereof, there were few safer bets than a DaBoii solo track. DaBoii raps with purist appeal, his style a charismatic but unornamented amalgam of the Bay’s long history of singular rap figures. The videos, courtesy directors Tyler Casey and BGIGGZ, are often as entertaining as the songs themselves; Neva Lookin Back corrals three of DaBoii’s best from the past year (“Ridin’,” “Onna Gang,” and “Sum it Up”) alongside a further nine new tracks, offering an imperfect but better-than-nothing document of DaBoii’s 2018. Still, it’s probably best to rip your own copy of this while you still can. –Corrigan B --- Curren$y, Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist (Fetti?) - Fetti (Roma?) [STREAM] A tangential anecdote that bears repeating: in a recent interview, rapper Milo reminisced about driving around Chicago with rapper Serengeti, listening to Freddie Gibbs and Madlib’s Piñata, which Milo recalled inspired ‘Geti to say, “I don’t know if it gets better than this.” Word. Although pairing with the Mad Liberator might’ve made Gibbs your favorite rappers’ favorite rapper, heads have been waiting for a Gibbs-Curren$y-Alchemist album since the trio first came together on 2011’s “Scottie Pippen.” Thankfully, Fetti does not disappoint nor does it rest on the laurels that the three artists have received independently of each other in the seven years since. Which brings us to another point not yet fully addressed in this tape’s coverage to date: none of the three artists’ names appear on the cover, yet the word “Roma” does, leading one to believe that it might in fact be the title to this, the first release by a rap supergroup named Fetti. Fingers crossed, lighters up. –Samuel Diamond --- Warhol.ss - Chest Pains [STREAM] Has it really been two and a half years since Warhol.ss dropped “Speed Racer?” Although it feels like little time has passed since the Chicago emcee broke into the SoundCloud mainstream, the platform’s predominant ethos has experienced so much change it’s easy to forget the potential that brief track packed. Surfing Brentrambo’s undulant percussion, Warhol.ss stood out with a gruff cadence and unflinching confidence that offset the bubblegum aesthetic that overtook 2016. Despite a handful of collaborations with tastemakers Pi’erre Bourne and Cole Bennett, he’s yet to recreate his initial brilliance — an understandably difficult feat for someone so ahead of their time. On Chest Pains, we find Warhol.ss exploring the lanes that lead him back to prominence: he’s at his most accessible muttering plosive-tinged one-liners on the Kenny Beats-produced “Bird’s Nest,” but “War Ready” proves to be the tape’s most fascinating venture. Kick drums stumble over bars as Warhol lines the off-kilter rhythm with a nimble collage of triplet flows. It’s difficult to wrap your head around, but it’s hypnotic if you can. This new crop of cuts doesn’t include an obvious hit, but it does appear to be a step toward something greater. Trust the process. –Jude Noel --- Black Josh - Yung Sweg Lawd [STREAM] Is it acute homesickness or latent agoraphobia that causes some people to become physically ill every time they leave their old stomping grounds? Or maybe just plain, ordinary travelers sickness? My brother, who works in an airport, told me that a few months back a flight touched down with every passenger and crew member sick, like vomiting sick… quarantine sick. Yung Sweg Lawd is that sick, bro. It’s dark. Absent a better frame of reference (my fault), it’s Wu-Tang on Tim Westwood in the 90s, blacked out, using the words “dark” and “horrible” as slang praise, having likely just learned it. Pharma-grade smoke clouds billowing like factory stacks, it’s the acid rain; Black Josh a climate-change centaur moving (in) packs. –Samuel Diamond --- The-Dream - Ménage à Trois: Sextape Vol. 1, 2, 3 [STREAM] Weird times that we’re living in when an artist can release a three-volume, 42-song mixtape and it’s not anticipated or received as their magnum opus. In fact, I don’t even think that R&B heavyweight The-Dream announced Ménage à Trois beforehand beyond hinting that he was working on something. Thus Ménage à Trois, thematically billed as a three-part “sex tape,” with album art to match, lands as another long project from another major artist (which is the standard in The Age of Streaming), but it’s one worth sifting through if you like R&B even just a little bit. Singers-turned-rappers and/or rappers-turned-singers are a dime a dozen nowadays (i.e., that Drizzy-/Ty Dolla-esque hybrid style, which, make no mistake, I do enjoy), which is to say: for all the suave-crooning purists like myself, R&B proper has seen better days on the charts. Luckily, The-Dream gives us 2.5 hours of sultry singing (mostly) sans rap harmonies here while still delivering much stylistic variety. Think The Weeknd’s Trilogy except every song is about sex, with a modus operandi that overall seems to be downtempo and lush. Dig through this behemoth until you find something to cuddle up with — there’s bound to be stuff you’ll have on repeat. –Alex Brown --- Boosie Badazz - Boosie Blues Cafe [STREAM] From the Thanksgiving release date (announced two days prior) to its very concept, the actual existence of Boosie Blues Cafe was far from certain until the moment we had it in our hands. Not that expectations were tempered to match, of course. While not “bluesy,” per se, the cathartic baring of the soul has always factored heavily into Boosie’s work; he’s the man with a song for everything, a Baton Rouge legend off his ability to speak directly to the city’s youth. The prospect of him stepping fully into the region’s other musical tradition, then, was immensely appealing, if less out of optimism than sheer curiosity. It works OK — with the exception of absolute slapper “I Know How to Have a Good Time,” most of the tracks are identifiably Boosiean to a fault; Boosie’s got such a long history of rapping this stuff in a compelling way that translating it to a blues idiom can feel a bit rote. A worthwhile experiment, however; Boosie’s passion projects are by default a thousand times more interesting than someone else’s re-hashing of the very crowded Rap Caviar lane. –Corrigan B --- Sir E.U - Merry christmas my nigga! / Thc / To This Day / Cries for help [MCMN · THC · TTD · CFH] Earlier this year, I was talking to an artist who shall remain nameless about the inclusion in this column of a tape by another artist who shall remain nameless. The artist I was kibitzing with took issue with the included work, saying something to the effect of “If you throw enough shit at the wall, eventually some will stick, but that doesn’t mean it’s any good,” which is more than fair. To be honest, my understanding of noise sets and DJing in general isn’t nearly adroit enough to tell if Sir E.U’s massive output over the last two weeks is an example of the aforementioned criticism or of a mix master purposely and methodically laying waste to two-turntable fundamentals. Either way, though, the shit bangs. And the sheer quantity of his year-end sound dump is something to behold. Dig in. –Samuel Diamond http://j.mp/2GM5GfC

[blurry-fics]

Monday

A Weekend at the Josephs | Series Masterlist

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1407

Author’s Note: This is the final part of the miniseries! (I know I originally said it would run through Saturday, but I was switched up about what day it was in my head). Thank you to everyone who kept up with this little series and showed me support. I hope you enjoy the final chapter! (picture credit) @ohprettyweeper

The clock in the corner of my laptop read 1:30am, but I was still far from tired. I wasn’t entirely sure if it was the adrenaline from Tyler’s confession today - or yesterday, now - or my generally bad sleep schedule, but whatever it was wasn’t going to be letting me sleep anytime soon. It was a good thing YouTube had a never ending supply of recommended videos for me.

My door creaked open shortly after the start of the video. I pulled my headphones down and hit pause at lightning speeds, looking for whatever had caused the door to open. A moment later, Tyler’s head popped in. His hair was sticking up at all angles and he looked exhausted, despite the fact that he was awake and currently standing in the doorway of the guest bedroom.

“What are you doing?” I whispered. “You scared me.”

“I can’t sleep.”

I scooted over so that I was no longer in the direct center of the bed and patted the empty space next to me. Tyler smiled as he slid into the room and closed the door behind him.

“Aren’t your parents going to be pissed if they find you in here?” I asked as he cuddled up next to me.

“I’m twenty years old, they can deal with it.”

“Tyler, I’m a guest here and I would really rather not make your mom upset.”

“I’ll cover for you if she does find out, but I highly doubt she will.”

“If you say so.”

Tyler leaned onto my shoulder and wrapped one arm around my waist. I unplugged my headphones so that he would be able to hear the video I was watching, although I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to pay much attention. As far as I could tell, he was already starting to fall asleep.

“Is that a good volume?” I asked.

“Mmmhmm,” he hummed against my shoulder.

I got comfortable and leaned my head against his. His arm grew a little tighter around me, which I took as a sign that he liked what I was doing. It was a weird feeling to be laying here with Tyler wrapped around me when just a few days ago I wasn’t even sure he still considered me a friend. A lot had changed over the weekend, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

*     *     *

I woke up in an empty bed the next morning, and for a moment I wondered if Tyler coming into my room had actually been just a dream. Then I remembered how Tyler’s arm had felt wrapped around me and all of my doubts washed away.

Tyler and Zack were the only ones in the house when I finally arrived downstairs, fully dressed and ready for the day. Kelly had still been nice enough to make breakfast for everyone and leave it out on the counter. I grabbed some fruit and toast and joined Tyler at the dining room table. Zack was in the living room, sprawled out on the couch and watching TV.

“Good morning,” Tyler smiled. I could tell by the way that he was looking at me that he really wanted to show me some sort of affection, but couldn’t because of the possibility of Zack seeing.

“Good morning.”

“How did you sleep last night?”

“I slept great. What about you?”

“Best night of sleep I’ve had in awhile.”

I smiled and lightly kicked at him under the table, making him laugh. He scraped up the last bit of egg on his plate and shoved it into his mouth.

“Where’s your family?” I asked.

“Errands,” he answered once he swallowed his eggs. “I have no idea when they’ll be back.”

“My mom said they’d be getting here in half an hour or so.”

Tyler’s eyebrows shot up, “You need to pack your stuff up.”

“Yeah, but I need to finish eating first.”

“I can help you pack to make it go faster.”

“Are you actually going to help? Or are you going to cause a problem and actually slow me down?”

“I’ll actually help, don’t worry,” Tyler laughed.

He sat and talked with me while I finished the rest of my food and even offered to clean up my plate so that I could get a headstart on packing. I thanked him with a quick pat on the shoulder before taking the stairs up two at a time to start gathering all my things from around the room.

I had just finished getting everything gathered into one large pile on the bed when Tyler walked into the room and wrapped his arms around me.

“I can finally hug you now that Zack isn’t sitting ten feet away,” he said.

I maneuvered one of my arms so that I could wrap it around him. He hugged me a little longer, pressed a kiss to my cheek, and then took a step away from me.

“How are we tackling this?” he asked.

“It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, I just need to fit it all in my bag.”

“That should be easy enough.”

Tyler actually kept true to his word of being helpful while I packed up my things. With his help, I managed to get everything packed up in record time, leaving us enough time to relax before my parents came and picked me up.

“We did it,” Tyler smiled, collapsing back onto the bed.

“We did it.”

I fell back onto the bed next to Tyler, who was quick to wrap his arms around me and pull me closer to him.

“I’m going to miss not having you in the house,” he said.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to miss being here too. It’s ironic, considering how much I was dreading coming here in the first place.”

Tyler’s eyebrows furrowed, “You were dreading staying over?”

I nodded. “I was afraid it was going to be awkward being around you because of the whole band situation, but after we got that cleared up on the first night, it was actually pretty fun to hang out here.”

“It probably helped that you were with Sav half the time,” Tyler laughed.

“I’m with Sav half the time even when I’m at home, that’s just normal.”

“And now you get to spend the other half with me.”

“I already did that too.”

“Ok, you have a point.”

We continued to lay on the bed, making casual conversation, until my phone buzzed. One glimpse of my mom’s name was enough to tell me that her and my dad were outside.

“I guess this is it,” I said, unwrapping myself from Tyler’s arms and sitting up.

“Do you want help carrying your stuff?”

“I think I’ve got it, but I wouldn’t you mind walking me outside.”

“Ok, but I have to do this first.”

Tyler’s kiss caught me by surprise, just as it did the first time, except this time he was the first one to pull away.

“I wanted to do that before you left, but obviously I couldn’t kiss you in the driveway.”

“I’m glad you did it,” I smiled.

“Alright, now let’s get you out there before your parents get suspicious.”

I followed Tyler down the stairs and said a quick goodbye to Zack, who was still watching TV. He waved to me as I walked out the door.

“Hi, sweetheart!” my dad called from the passenger side window.

“Hi, Dad!”

Tyler waited halfway up the driveway while I tossed my things into the backseat. My parents started to shoot rapid fire questions at me, but I asked them to hold on just a second before I went running back to Tyler and threw my arms around him.

“I’ll see you soon, ok?” I asked.

“You better,” he laughed, squeezing me tightly.

“And can you tell your mom that I say thank you again for letting me stay? She was a great hostess.”

“I’ll make sure to pass the message along.”

I resisted the urge to give Tyler a kiss on the cheek and settled for a wave as I walked back down the driveway instead. He dug his hands in his pockets and watched as I climbed back into the car with my parents.

“Nice to see you again,” my dad said. “It seems like you’re in a good mood.”

“And you and Tyler seemed to have gotten along!” my mom added.

“Yeah,” I smiled. “I guess you could say that.”

[blurry-fics]

Sunday

A Weekend at the Josephs | Series Masterlist

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2562

Author’s Note: Just wanted to say a quick apology to @ohprettyweeper, who I have forgotten to tag in this miniseries up until this point (since those are the challenge rules... oops). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter! (picture credit)

I grabbed another small piece of lettuce from the tupperware container next to me and held it out to Paul. He eyed it carefully for a moment before taking it from my hand, making me giggle. Sav smiled and gave him a little pat on the back.

“How was hanging out with Josh last night?” I asked.

“It was good!” Sav said. “We just watched TV and Josh sat with Paul the entire night, which was pretty cute. I think they’re best friends now.”

“Paul,” I frowned. “You replaced me that easily?”

Paul simply continued to munch on his lettuce, obviously unaffected by my accusation. 

“Speaking of boys,” Sav continued. “What happened with Tyler when you got home yesterday?”

“Oh my gosh, I haven’t told you!” Sav’s eyes went wide and she adjusted her sitting position so that she was facing me a little better. “A lot happened.”

“Go on.”

“Ok, so, I got home, right? And Tyler was sitting on the couch basically just waiting for me to get back because he was bored out of his mind, so I told him he was free to come sit with me while I was on Tumblr.”

“You let him look at your Tumblr?” Sav asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Not my Tumblr, just my dashboard.” She nodded. “Anyway, we were looking at that and pictures of Brendon Urie kept popping up, obviously, and he kept asking who that was and I told him a couple times, but then he started doing it to annoy me.”

“Cute.”

“Just wait, it gets better. I told him that I wasn’t going to keep answering his questions if he was going to do it just to bother me, so of course he starts asking questions just to bother me. I didn’t answer, like I said I wouldn’t, and then he leaned his head on my shoulder! And then he left it there! Even after I told him it was Brendon Urie!”

Sav shook her head, “I told you he feels the same way about you! It’s so obvious, both of you are just too scared to see it.”

“And it was really funny because his mom came upstairs to tell us dinner was ready, but he got so nervous that he nearly fell off the bed when he was scooting away from me.”

“Aww.”

“Oh! And he said there’s something he’s been wanting to tell me but he’s waiting for the right moment.”

“Kae!”

“What?”

“He’s going to tell you he likes you.”

I shot Sav a look, “I doubt that.”

Now it was her turn to shoot me a look, “Are you kidding? It’s so painfully obvious that it’s what he wants to tell you, especially since he said he needed to wait for the right moment.”

“Ok, yes, you have a point, but I’m really trying to not get my hopes up.”

“That’s understandable.”

Our conversation was interrupted by Pumpkin, Sav’s corgi, bursting into the room and making a beeline straight for me. Sav quickly scooped Paul up and out of danger before Pumpkin collided straight into me, nearly knocking me straight back onto the carpet. I wrapped my arms around her and scratched at her back and ears. She covered me in slobbery kisses as thanks.

“Hi, baby,” I laughed as she licked my cheek. “How are you?”

“Pumpkin! Down.”

Pumpkin removed her paws from my shoulders at Sav’s command, but remained sitting in my lap so that she could continue to receive pets.

“But I love her so much,” I sighed, burying my face in her fur.

“That doesn’t mean she gets to jump all over you,” Sav laughed.

I dramatically sighed, but didn’t argue anymore. Once Pumpkin was settled down in my arms, Sav put Paul back on the ground and let him run around the carpet awhile longer. He spent most of that time trying to get into the tupperware containing the rest of the lettuce, but each time Sav put a quick end to his schemes.

“I’m so curious about what Tyler is going to tell you, feelings or not.”

“Yeah, me too.”

*     *     *

Sav dropped me off right after we finished lunch at her house, partially because she had to run some errands with her mom and partially because I was eager to get back to the house and see if Tyler would finally fess up. As it turned out, he had left shortly before I returned for band practice, meaning that I still had at least another couple hours of waiting before my questions would be answered. With a sigh, I joined the rest of his siblings in the living room to kill some time playing videos games. It would be better than sitting alone in my room with my thoughts, anyway.

I ended up staying downstairs until Kelly announced that dinner was ready. The mere thought of enduring a family dinner without Tyler nearly sent me into a panic, but I knew there was no way that I would be able to get out of it now that I was already downstairs. Instead, I squared my shoulders and followed Zack into the kitchen just like I had every other night. Worst case scenario, I could just eat my food as fast as possible, get excused from the table, and sneak up to my room to calm down until Tyler got home and I would inevitably end up nervous again.

As if he had sensed my distress, Tyler arrived home just minutes after we had all sat down at the dinner table, apologizing profusely for being late as he piled up his own plate and sat down in his assigned spot at the table, next to me. He smiled at me as he pulled his chair in, making me feel somewhere between relieved and even more stressed than I had been just a moment before.

I was on the way back to my room after washing my plate when Tyler stopped me, asking if we could talk in the backyard. After I agreed, he led me out the backdoor and to the far side of the yard where a stone ledge separated a bit of dirt from the rest of the grass. He sat down on the edge of it, so I followed suit by sitting down a reasonable distance away from him. I could tell by the way that he was fidgeting with his hands that he was nervous, although I couldn’t really say that I was in a much better state than him.

“Um, so about what I was going to tell you yesterday…”

He had just started to get the sentence out when my phone started vibrating in my pocket. It wasn’t often that I got phone calls and, afraid that it could be my parents bearing bad news, I decided to check who it was. It wasn’t my parents, after all, but Sav, who called me just about as rarely as they did.

“It’s Sav,” I announced. “Do you mind if I take this real quick? She doesn’t call me unless it’s important.”

“Yeah, go ahead,” Tyler said. He wasn’t mad as I had expected him to be. If anything, he seemed relieved.

I hit call as I walked towards the other side of the yard, just in case whatever she was calling about was something she would rather not have Tyler hear.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Kae! Hi.”

“What’s going on? Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine! I’m just in the car so obviously I couldn’t text you.”

“Text me about what?”

“Well, I just picked up Josh-”

“Hi,” he chimed in.

“-and I was wondering if you and Tyler wanted to come get ice cream with us? We’re about ten minutes from Tyler’s house.”

I looked over my shoulder at where Tyler was still sitting on the stone ledge, tossing around a rock that he had seemingly found in the dirt.

“Um, let me ask.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear as I made my way back to Tyler, making sure to mute it so that they wouldn’t hear our conversation.

“Hey, Ty?”

He looked up at me, “Yeah?”

“Sav was wondering if you wanted to go get ice cream with her and Josh? And me, obviously. Sav is driving and she said she would be here in like ten minutes.”

“Josh is the guy you said might be good for the band?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“Yeah, that would be fun.”

“Ok, I’ll let them know.”

I unmuted the call, not bothering to walk away from Tyler this time. “Sav?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re down.”

“Ok, sweet. I’ll let you know when we get there.”

“Perfect. Thanks.”

Sav ended the call abruptly, as she had a habit of doing. I locked my phone and stuck it back into the pocket of my jeans before joining Tyler on the wall again.

“So,” I started, drawing out the word. “We still have a little time before they get here, if you wanted to tell me what you’ve been meaning to.”

Tyler shrugged, “I don’t know. I don’t want it to feel rushed.”

“Ok. I’m going to go grab my wallet then.”

I got up and started to walk back into the house. It couldn’t have been more than five seconds before I heard Tyler’s footsteps follow behind my own, which I hadn’t been expecting.

“Actually, no. I’m tired of waiting.” I stopped walking and turned to face Tyler, who was only a couple of feet away from me. His mouth was open, as if the words had slipped out of his mouth before he fully realized what he was doing. He stood there for a second before digging his hands deep into his pockets. “I like you, Kae. A lot. And I have for awhile. I never told you because I was afraid that you didn’t feel the same, but this weekend kind of changed my mind about all that and I decided it was worth telling you, even if you didn’t.”

Even with Sav telling me that this was going to be his confession and Josh being able to pick up on what was so obvious to everyone but us despite never meeting Tyler, I still found myself completely dumbfounded by his confession. I was at a complete and total loss for words.

“I don’t know what to say,” I whispered.

He closed the space between us, “You could start by saying you feel the same… or don’t.”

“Oh no, I definitely feel the same,” I said, finally looking up to meet his eyes. “I thought that much was obvious.”

“Nothing is ever obvious to me,” he laughed.

“So what you’re saying is that you can’t tell how badly I want you to kiss me right now?”

“Ok, maybe that part was obvious.”

Tyler quickly checked for any family members who might be lurking in the windows before he kissed me. It had been awhile since the last time I had kissed someone, so it took me by surprise at first, despite the fact I had known it was coming. He kissed me until I could no longer contain my giddy laughter and had to pull away.

“Sorry,” I said. “I know this is supposed to be serious.”

“Don’t apologize,” he smiled, reaching out to rest his hands on my hips. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

*     *     *

In the remaining time that Tyler and I had left before Josh and Sav’s arrival, I filled him in on all the discussions I had been having with them over the last couple days. During that time, we also came to the decision to pretend as if nothing had happened between us for the sake of pranking the two of them. It was hard not to take hold of Tyler’s hand as we walked down the driveway to the car or into the ice cream shop, but I knew that their reactions would be more than worth it.

“The sunset looks nice,” Sav commented as she scooped up another spoonful of ice cream.

I turned and looked over my shoulder at the clouds that were just beginning to be tinted pink and orange.

“It’s not the only thing that looks nice,” Josh added.

Tyler nudged me in the shoulder, prompting me to finally take my eyes away from the conversation and look at him. He raised his eyebrows at me with a smile, making me smile. Sav noticed the exchange and shot me a questioning look, but I simply shrugged. A moment later, my phone buzzed.

Sav: what was that all about?

I bit back a smile as I typed out my “oblivious” response.

Kae: wdym?

I watched as Sav sighed, shot me one more look, and then set her phone back onto the table. Josh took notice of this and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her a little closer into his side. This was enough to put a smile back on her face.

“Kae, can I try a bite of your ice cream?” Tyler asked.

“Sure.”

He scooped up a large spoonful of my ice cream and popped it into his mouth, which now had both Sav and Josh looking at me with confused expressions.

“What?” I smiled.

“You never share your ice cream,” Josh said. “At least, not that I’ve seen.”

“Nope. Kae never shares,” Sav confirmed.

“What are you talking about? Of course they do,” Tyler argued.

Sav and Josh shared a look before turning back to us. “Is there something going on here that I don’t know about?” Sav asked. “Because it kind of seems like there is.”

I shook my head, “Nope, nothing is going on.”

Sav seemed skeptical, but didn’t press the matter any further. Instead, she started to talk about some more drama that had happened between a couple of our college friends that she had forgotten to tell me that morning. Josh and Tyler listened in, occasionally asking clarifying questions or adding their own comments to the situation.

I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend a Sunday night.

*     *     *

“Thanks for driving us,” I said as I slid out of the backseat. “This was really fun.”

“Thanks for coming along,” Sav smiled.

I hopped down onto the pavement and shut the door behind me. Tyler had already made it halfway up the driveway, but he was waiting for me. He was swinging his keys idly around his finger.

“Wait, Kae,” Josh called after me.

I backtracked so that I was now standing outside the passenger side door of Sav’s Jeep. Josh beckoned me in a little closer.

“Are you sure that you and Tyler aren’t dating?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Sav added. “Like, I know you two act like a couple usually, but that was way different.”

“Ok, so maybe the thing Tyler had to tell me was that he had feelings for me,” I grinned. “And maybe that means we’re dating now.”

I turned and walked up the driveway, despite the fact that Sav was yelling after me. As casually as I could, I walked up to Tyler and wrapped my arms around him as I pressed a quick kiss to his lips. It was hard not to laugh when I saw the shocked looks on Josh and Sav’s faces 

“I knew it!” was the last thing I heard before Sav drove off.

[blurry-fics]

Friday

A Weekend at the Josephs | Series Masterlist

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2778

Author’s Note: Yes! A new miniseries. This will run from today through Saturday (a little confusing because of when the story is set, I know) and then posting will return to normal :) also this totally had an author’s note the entire time. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Enjoy the chapter! (picture credit)

I idly tapped my fingers against the edge of the car door as I looked out the window at the passing trees. My parents were talking quietly in the front seat, going over their flight details and what they would do when they arrived in Oregon. The radio was playing, although I could just barely make out whatever pop song was on over the sound of their conversation.

“I don’t understand why I can’t just stay at home,” I said, interjecting myself into their conversation.

My mom sighed, having already heard this same argument from me three times this morning. She turned slightly over her shoulder so that I could see her face, but kept her attention on the road in front of her.

“It just gives me peace of mind to know that you’re with the Josephs, sweetheart. Staying home alone overnight can be scary. Besides, aren’t you and Tyler close?”

“But I’m twenty, Mom. I’m more than capable of taking care of myself now.”

“It’s only a weekend. It’s going to be over before you know it,” my dad added.

“Exactly. It’s just a weekend,” I mumbled.

“I know you’re capable of taking care of yourself, but I would rather you don’t have to worry about it.”

I crossed my arms and turned back to the window, deciding there was no point in fighting anymore. The argument had been lost the moment that I got into the car with my parents.

“Aren’t you excited to spend a weekend with Tyler?”

“No.”

“Why not? He’s your best friend.”

“Yeah, when he’s not too busy with his band.”

I could just make out the hint of a frown on my mom’s face, but she didn’t press the matter any further. It was probably for the best; my frustration about having to stay with the Josephs paired with the hurt of Tyler prioritizing his band over me would only lead to me talking my parents’ ears off about the entire situation, and I would rather not be pissed when I came face to face with Tyler’s family.

“I’m sure you’re going to have fun this weekend, darling. Have you made any plans with Sav?” my dad asked.

“Not yet.”

“You should do that.”

“I will.”

Our conversation came to a stop as my mom turned off the main road and into an all-too-familiar neighborhood. I tried to ignore the steadily growing feeling of discomfort in my stomach as we grew closer and focused on the comments my dad was making about renovations some of the families had done to their homes. Despite the distraction, I still felt like I might pass out by the time we pulled up outside the Joseph’s house.

“Are you going to be ok getting to the door by yourself?” my mom asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be ok,” I lied, not wanting to create more of a hassle for them.

My mom held out her arms and I awkwardly leaned over the center console to give her some semblance of a goodbye hug. My dad did the same shortly after, but gave me the added bonus of a kiss on the head. I scrunched my nose as he did so.

“We’ll be back Monday morning to pick you up. Make sure to send texts so we know you’re alive. Behave for Kelly and Chris. And, um, just try to have a nice time with Tyler, ok?” my mom smiled.

“I’ll try,” I said as I pulled my duffle bag into my lap. “Say hi to Aunt Nancy for me.”

“Will do,” my dad said.

There was a chorus of “I love you”s as I stepped out of the car and closed the door behind me. I waved to my parents through the window before turning and walking up the stone path that led to the front door. If they had driven away, I hadn’t heard it. My mind was too focused on getting to the door and getting inside without making a fool of myself.

Kelly opened the door shortly after I knocked with my shaky hands, obviously expecting my arrival. She smiled and ushered me inside, already telling me how nice it was to see me and how excited the family was for me to stay with them. I just returned her smile and tried not to get dirt all over the rug.

Her chatter eventually died down and I managed to chime in with a, “Thank you again for letting me stay here.”

“Oh, it’s no problem. We always enjoy having company and you’re no exception, Kae.”

“Thanks,” I smiled.

“Here, I’ll show you the guest room so you can set your things down.”

I readjusted my bag on my shoulder and followed Kelly up the stairs. Years of running around this house with Tyler and his siblings had already given me a pretty good idea of where everything was, but I was glad that I wouldn’t have to go wandering around upstairs until I found the right room.

“If you need anything to help you sleep, like a fan or something, don’t hesitate to let me know! I’d be happy to grab it for you.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Joseph. I appreciate it.”

“Of course. Oh, and Tyler should be getting home soon. He was out with friends this morning, but he said he would be back in the afternoon.”

Tyler. I had been so caught up with getting inside the house and talking to Kelly that I hadn’t even noticed his absence. At least I had some time to figure out my plan of action before he got back to the house.

“Ok,” I said, forcing a smile.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to it.”

Kelly turned and walked out of the room, closing the door most of the way behind her. Once I heard her walk down the stairs, I collapsed back onto the bed and buried my face in my hands. I had been here for all of five minutes and I already felt stressed beyond belief. 

How was I supposed to survive a whole weekend of this?

*     *     *

I lost track of how long I spent in the guest bedroom, messing around on my laptop and just generally hiding out from the family. Tyler seemingly hadn’t returned home yet either, giving me all the more reason to not interact with anyone for awhile longer. There would be plenty of time for the stress of that when dinnertime rolled around.

A text popped up in the corner of my screen as I was scrolling through Tumblr. The mere sight of Sav’s name was enough to make me smile; she was one of the few people that might actually have the power to get me out of the house for awhile. Another message followed shortly after.

Sav: sorry my shift just ended!!

Sav: what’s going on?

I had texted her awhile ago, saying that I was stressed out and already tired of being “here”. She had already heard me rant about my parents forcing me to stay with family friends while they went out of town for awhile, although I had never actually confirmed that I had lost the debate with my parents over it.

Kae: i’m stuck at tyler’s house for the weekend and i’m stRESSED. like his parents are so nice but it still makes me anxious, you know??

Sav: you’ve got this though! things with tyler might not be as awkward as you expect them to be

Kae: yeah, you’re right. i think i’m just going to be freaking out until he gets home. i haven’t seen him in like a week

Kae: also, before i forget, do you want to do something tomorrow? i’d really rather not be stuck at the house all day

I switched back over to Tumblr while I waited for her response. Downstairs, I could hear some commotion as someone arrived home. My heart was quick to start pounding in my chest, but I tried to ignore it and focus on the gifset that was currently looping on my screen.

Sav: i have plans with josh, but he said it’s cool if you want to tag along with us! we were just planning to get smoothies and hang out or something, there wasn’t really a plan

Kae: are you sure? i don’t want to ruin your date

Sav: yes, it’s totally ok! josh wants to see you anyway so it’s a win/win

Kae: ok :)

Before Sav had a chance to say anything else, there was a knock on my door. I immediately pushed myself into an upright position and switched from Tumblr to a new tab.

“Yeah?” I called.

The door pushed open slightly, revealing Tyler on the other side.

“Hi,” he smiled. “I was just coming to see what you were up to. My mom said you’ve been up here since you got dropped off.”

I closed my laptop and slid it off my lap, hoping it would distract from the blush on my cheeks. Tyler was now casually leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed, waiting until I fully invited him into the room.

“You know how I am,” I laughed. “I get stressed easily.”

“I know, it’s not a big deal. Do you mind if I come in?”

I looked around me for a moment, as if I needed to check if there was enough room for Tyler to sit. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

I scooted over a little, leaving plenty of open space next to me for him to sit. He walked over and practically fell onto the bed, making both of us bounce. From where he was sitting, I could just make out the smell of his cologne. He had a bad habit of going a bit overboard with it when he hung out with his friends.

“I just wanted to catch up. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen one another and I figured, since you’re stuck here for the weekend, we might as well, right?”

My eyebrows furrowed for a moment, but Tyler didn’t seem to catch it. “And we’re best friends?”

“Right, that too,” he said, but he didn’t meet my eyes.

I took a moment to study his profile while he was busy looking at the ground. His eyelashes curled so nicely, highlighting what I could see of his chocolate brown eyes. My eyes slowly followed the line of his face, along the curve of his nose and down to his lips. He must have felt me staring, because he turned and met my eyes, bringing the blush straight back to my cheeks. I turned and looked at a plant that was sitting on a nearby dresser.

Now I remembered why it always hurt so bad when Tyler chose the band over me. It was deeper than just the fact that he had been my best friend for years, although I couldn’t deny the role that played in my feelings.

More than anything, it hurt because of the massive crush I had developed on him a few months ago.

“So what have you been up to lately?” Tyler asked, placing his hands behind him so he could lean back. “We haven’t really seen much of each other.”

“Yeah, because someone has been busy trying to get famous,” I said, lightly poking him with my foot. I hoped that making a lighthearted joke about the issue might open up some serious discussion.

It didn’t.

“I know, I know,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to make time for you, but new things just keep popping up all over the place. Not to mention the band drama.”

“Not the band drama,” I gasped. Tyler rolled his eyes at me.

“It’s serious, Kae.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“I know and that’s my fault. Anyway, I asked what you had been up to.”

I shrugged, “Not much. I’m just killing time until school starts up again, I guess.”

“What about your writing? Have you been doing that?”

“Well, yeah, but you already knew about that.”

“Are you ever going to let me read it?”

“Maybe one day.”

“But not today?” Tyler smiled. Me not letting him read my writing had become a running joke between the two of us.

“Not today.”

“Maybe I’ll stop letting you read my song lyrics until you start letting me read your stories.”

“Not fair!” I laughed.

Tyler made a confused face, only making me laugh harder. It was weird how quickly I had forgotten my frustration with him once he was sitting in front of me, but part of me was glad that I hadn’t kept my guard up. At the end of the day, he was still my best friend, even if sometimes I wished he was more.

There was a knock on the door, and a moment later Kelly had popped her head into the room.

“Dinner is ready,” she smiled.

“Ok, we’ll be down in a second,” Tyler said.

She closed the door, once again leaving just the two of us.

“Ready?” Tyler asked, turning to me.

“I think so.”

He reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. A smile threatened to overtake my face, but I directed my attention elsewhere and put my energy into not doing exactly that.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let it get too awkward.”

“Thanks, Ty.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

*     *     *

I waited for Zack to finish washing his plate before stepping in front of the sink and cleaning my own. Most of the family was in the living room now, watching TV or talking to one another, and I was currently trying to decide if I would join them or slide back up to my room once again. Before I had a chance to come to a conclusion, Tyler joined me in the kitchen and leaned up against the counter.

“What are your plans for tonight?” he asked. 

I held back a laugh, knowing that he most likely hadn’t intended for his question to come off as a joke.

“Not sure yet,” I answered as I stuck my plate in the dishwasher. “Why do you ask?”

“I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out. You know, like chill in my room or something.”

I was relieved that Tyler’s offer gave me an excuse to not sit with the rest of the family in the living room, plus it gave me another opportunity to really talk to Tyler about the whole issue with him ditching me lately. He had already made it obvious that he was aware of it, but I wasn’t so sure that he really understood how badly it upset me. 

“Yeah, I’m down.”

“Sweet.”

I closed the dishwasher and followed Tyler up the stairs to his room. He immediately collapsed back onto his bed, but I stood in the middle of the room and took a moment to look around the room. It looked almost identical to the last time I had seen it - which was almost three months ago now - aside from the addition of unorganized stacks of lyrics and sheet music. There were also some half-colored sketches thrown in and stacks of CDs that he hadn’t yet gotten around to selling.

“You can sit, if you want,” he said.

“Right.”

I pulled his desk chair out and sat in it, spinning around to face him. He was leaned against the wall now, idly letting one hand run along the opposite forearm. Although I was looking at him, his gaze was still directed towards the ground.

“There’s something that I want to talk to you about,” he said.

I took a deep breath to calm the increase in my heart rate once again. “What is that?”

“What I said earlier, when I was talking about making more time for you, I just want you to know that I mean that. I know I’ve been really, really bad about it lately, and I can explain the whole story later, but I’m going to start making an effort. You’re just as, if not more, important to me and you deserve to be shown that.”

“I was actually going to talk to you about the same thing, so I appreciate that.”

“I’m actually, uh, hoping that this weekend will help make it up to you.”

“Do you have something planned?”

“Maybe,” he grinned.

I wanted to press him a little further, but assumed it wouldn’t lead to anything. When Tyler wanted something to stay secret, it stayed secret.

“And what’s the plan for tonight?”

“Video games, snacks, and staying up way later than we should.”

I smiled, “I think I can get behind that plan.”

Maybe this weekend wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

[blurry-fics]

A Weekend at the Josephs Masterlist

Kae and Tyler’s friendship had always been perfect. No fights. No jealousy. No awkward unreciprocated feelings. They always had been, and always would be, best friends. That is, until Tyler started a band and decided that putting time into music was more important than Kae’s friendship.

Now that Kae is being forced to spend a weekend with Tyler’s family while their parents go out of town, they are forced to finally deal with the strained relationship. Will Tyler be able to make up his mistake? Or is it past fixing?

*     *     *     *     *

Challenge Rules

Before You Read

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

[blurry-fics]

Skeleton Shindig

Kae & Sav’s Spooky Special | Masterlist

Warnings: Alcohol use, drunken shenanigans, one really bad pun, a brief confrontation

Word Count: 7173

Authors’ Note: This chapter is pretty long, I know, but there were a lot of little details we wanted to include. Regardless, we hope you enjoy the chapter! :) (picture credit)

Tyler’s POV

I finished emptying a bag of chips into a brightly colored bowl and set it in the middle of the counter among the rest of the snacks. My entire morning had been spent making spooky DIY snacks from recipes that Y/N, Josh, and I had collected off of Pinterest. Overall, I was pretty pleased with how everything had turned out, although what everyone else would think had yet to be determined.

My phone buzzed against the counter while I was throwing the chip bag into the trash. I hummed quietly as I wandered over to it and picked it up, scrolling through what messages I had missed. Similar to the morning before, Josh and Y/N had already started some conversation between themselves.

Y/N: what costumes are you dudes wearing tonight? i can’t decide :/

Josh: i haven’t decided on anything yet. i was thinking we could do a trio costume or something.

Y/N: a trio costume! that’s a great idea :)

By the time I was caught up with their messages, a plan had already formulated in my head. If I played my cards right, I could get Josh and Y/N into a couple’s costume without them even knowing. While it may not get them to admit their feelings, it definitely had the potential to give them a shove in the right direction.

Tyler: hey! what if we do the skeleton onesies from a couple years ago? comfortable, easy, and it doesn’t require buying anything new

Unbeknownst to them, I already had my own costume ready to go, completely separate from the old skeleton onesie. I tapped my foot impatiently against the wood floors, waiting for their replies. If one of them wasn’t totally on board with the idea, then I would have to do some serious convincing to make sure they ended up following through.

Y/N: ooh, why didn’t i think of that? that’s perfect! you in, josh?

Josh: yeah, i’m in!

I smiled, giving my fist a little shake of success. Now all I had to worry about was getting them to my house without either of them changing their minds or figuring out my master plan. Thankfully, that was a problem for later. Right now, my top priority was finishing all the decorations for the party.

That, and figuring out the next step of my plan.

*      *      *

A door towards the back of the house creaked as I was hanging some fake cobwebs over the fireplace. I immediately stopped what I was doing and listened, waiting to see if the noise would repeat itself. My doors were always locked at all hours of the day and as far as I knew, there shouldn’t be anyone at my house today until the party started. Deciding that it had probably been a sound effect from the music I had playing, I brushed it off and went back to decorating.

There was another sound a short time later, although this time it sounded more like my floors creaking than it did a door opening. Now a bit more paranoid than I was before, I set my decorations down on the mantle and walked into the kitchen where my phone was sitting. While there was still a chance it could be the music playing over the speaker system, something about the proximity of the sound gave me a feeling that it wasn’t. Once the music was off, I slowly crept towards the hall closet where I kept a baseball bat for situations like this.

With the bat in my hands, and my nerves somewhat calmed now that I had something to protect myself, I started to creep towards the source of the noise. I wanted to believe that I had worked myself up over nothing because of it being the day before Halloween and all, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone, or something, was in my house.

Just as I was about to round the corner in the hallway, someone jumped out from behind the wall and scared me. I registered the bright red hair just in time to stop the bat mid-swing and avoid knocking Josh out cold.

“What the hell?” I said, bringing a hand to my chest. “How did you get in here?”

“I used my spare key to get in the back door and scare you,” Josh grinned. “Did it work?”

“Work? Josh, I nearly knocked you out cold.”

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.”

He gave me a pat on the shoulder as he walked down the hall. I took another moment to compose myself before joining him.

“Where should I put my bag? The guest room?” he called from the kitchen.

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

After some discussion, we decided that Y/N and Josh should spend the night at my place so that we could get an early start on our ghost hunting trip tomorrow. It was the grand finale of what Y/N had deemed our “Spooky Extravaganza” in order to celebrate Halloween this year. This was also the reason I had been talked into throwing a Halloween party.

While Josh put his things away, I wandered back into the living room to finish putting up decorations. There were only a few final touches and some food that needed to be laid out before the house was ready for tonight.

“Where’s your costume?” Josh asked as he wandered back into the living room.

My eyes went wide, but thankfully my back was to Josh so he wasn’t able to see my surprise. I quickly thought of a lie that I hoped would be believable.

“I haven’t put it on yet. I, uh, didn’t want it to get sweaty while I was decorating.”

“You’ve been hard at work, huh?” he laughed, a sign he had bought the lie.

“Yeah. Decorating is tough.”

“Do you need any help?”

I stepped down from the fireplace and glanced around the room, looking for anything that seemed out of place or under-decorated. If I was being honest, I was pretty impressed with the job that I had done on my own.

“I think I just have to get some more food ready, if you want to come help with that.”

“Sure.”

“How have you been since we last saw each other?” I asked as I began to grab food from the fridge.

“I’ve been ok. Mostly just sleeping, you know?”

“You mean you didn’t stay up until three talking to Y/N again?”

“No, not last night. They were tired and I wanted to let them sleep,” he said, barely containing a shy smile.

“Shocking.”

“Hey, not all of us fell asleep ten minutes into the movie last night.”

“I was exhausted! Being around two people who are clearly in love with one another but won’t admit it all day is tiring.”

“Shut up. We are not in love with one another.”

“Sure, Josh.”

“Although…” he trailed off.

I looked up from the platter that I was working on and raised my eyebrows at him. “Although?”

He reached up and rubbed at his neck, “Well, last night, when we were watching the movie… I got scared at one point and Y/N kind of… grabbed my hand, I guess? And held it for the rest of the movie.”

I took the dish towel that I had thrown over my shoulder and dramatically tossed it down on to the counter before resting my hands against its edge.

“Tell me again why you don’t think they feel the same?” I said.

“It didn’t mean anything,” he shrugged. “I don’t even know why I brought it up. They were just trying to comfort me because they know I don’t like scary movies. Y/N is way out of my league, anyway. It’s not going to happen.”

“Josh. Did you hear what you said to me? About them holding your hand?”

“Yes, and I told you that they were just being comforting.”

I sighed and pushed a hand through my hair. Though I was trying to hide my exasperation, I could tell that Josh knew I was frustrated with him.

“Listen, we have the party tonight and ghost hunting tomorrow. There’s going to be plenty of opportunities for you to hint at your feelings for Y/N. I’m not saying you have to admit anything, but can you at least try to be a little flirty?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know how.”

“It’s easy! Look, just watch me do it.”

Josh watched in confusion as I wandered over to the freezer. Inside were a number of rubber gloves that I filled with water the night before and left in there to freeze so that I could use them in punch at the party. I grabbed one of them and carried it back over to Josh.

“See, right here we have Y/N’s hand,” I said, gesturing to the glove. “Now, stay with me, Josh, say you two are walking, ok?”

Josh answered with a hesitant, “Ok.”

I started to mimic walking, making sure to swing the glove back and forth for added effect. “Ok, so you’re at the party or looking out for ghosts. All you need to do is turn your body a little and let your fingers gently brush against theirs.” I demonstrated. “Now this is the important part. If they turn their hand to catch yours when it swings back, then you know you’re in. If they don’t, then you pretend it was an accident and move on.”

“And how do you know this is going to work?”

I sighed as I started to peel the glove away so I could properly add it to the punch, “I don’t, but you’re never going to know if you don’t take a chance. Whether you think Y/N shares your feelings or not, you can’t deny that the two of you have a deep bond. I don’t want to see you pass that up because you’re scared, alright?”

Josh rubbed at the side of his face. “You’re right. I’m trying to make a move, I really am. I just get so nervous around them. Like, when they smile? And the whole room just lights up? It gives me butterflies every time and then I forget what I was trying to say because everything else fades out and I can’t do anything but smile like an idiot.”

“And that’s exactly why you need to pursue this. I’ve never seen you this in love with somebody. Y/N is special, Josh. Don’t lose that.”

“I know,” he said, snapping himself out of his lovesick daze. “Trust me, I know. Speaking of Y/N, when are they getting here?”

I checked the time on the stove. “Anytime now, although they did text and say traffic was worse than usual.”

“More time for me to amp myself up, I guess.”

“Exactly,” I grinned.

*      *      *

Your POV

You admired Tyler’s skeleton pumpkin as you walked up to his front door. Despite the mishap with Tyler cutting his finger, he still managed to end up with a decent looking pumpkin, It looked nice among the other decorations that he had taken the time to hang up outside his house, most of which were other skeletons.

You adjusted your backpack a little before knocking on the door. Josh opened it almost immediately, a bright smile on his face. You returned it as you stepped inside the house and kicked your shoes off by the door.

“Hey,” Josh smiled.

“Hi, how’s it going?”

“Great. I like your costume, by the way.”

“Thanks, I like yours too,” you giggled.

“You two wasted no time getting friendly,” Tyler said, arms crossed as he slowly wandered in your direction.

“I’d get friendly with you too if you actually had your costume on,” you retorted.

“I didn’t want to get it sweaty while I was decorating! I’ll put it on when people start getting here.”

“It looks amazing in here, by the way.” You took a moment to look around at all the decorations. “You really outdid yourself.”

“Thanks. I know you were really excited about this Halloween party, so I wanted to make sure it lived up to your spooky standards.”

“You definitely met them.”

“When is everyone else getting here?” Josh asked.

“Fifteen minutes or so. At least, that’s when they’re supposed to show up.”

“Are you going to get changed, Ty?” you chimed in.

“I will! I will.”

“We need to all match!”

You could have sworn you saw a smirk pass over Tyler’s face, but you decided to brush it off. He probably just had some crazy plan to scare everyone at the party later which, while concerning, was not something that you needed to immediately deal with.

“Also, where should I put my stuff?” you asked.

“The guest room is fine.”

“Ok.”

While the boys wandered off to the kitchen, you went down the hall to drop your belongings in the guest bedroom. You had always liked Tyler’s house; something about it being near the woods on the outskirts of Columbus had always comforted you and made it feel like a second home to you. Maybe it was the fact that the boys were always around when you were at Tyler’s too.

The boys were whispering hurriedly when you walked into the kitchen, but quickly stopped once they took notice of your presence. You simply smiled and took a seat in one of the stools next to Josh.

“This food looks really cool, Ty. You nailed the DIYs,” you said, admiring some oreo spiders he had made.

“Thanks. You should have seen me when I was working this morning,” he laughed. “The kitchen was a complete disaster of half-finished projects for a while.”

“I can only imagine.”

“Oh, I should probably go get dressed before people start showing up. Feel free to play darts or something while you wait. Just make sure not to get covered in paint.”

Tyler grinned at the two of you before disappearing down the hall. Josh was quiet for a moment before he turned to you. “Darts?”

“Sure.”

You got up and followed Josh into the dining room where Tyler had set up a game of what he and Josh had deemed “Spooky Darts”. A selection of water balloons were currently pinned to the wall, each full of red paint. Behind them was white paper, so that when the balloons popped, it would end up looking like blood splatter. You still remembered the proud look on the boys’ faces when they came up with it.

“You want to throw first?” Josh asked, holding a dart out to you.

“You know I’m not good at darts,” you laughed. “But I can try.”

“I can always help you, if you need it.”

You swallowed hard, unsure if you should take Josh up on the offer. Maybe you could really mess up this throw so you had an excuse to ask him for help the next time around. Yeah, that was definitely an idea you could get behind.

You tossed the dart at the makeshift dartboard, but ended up missing and nearly hitting the wall beside it. Your hand flew to your mouth to cover a gasp, but it quickly turned to laughter as you turned and saw the look on Josh’s face. He was smiling widely as he twirled his own dart in his fingers.

“This doesn’t even feel fair,” he laughed.

“I tried!”

“Here, let the professional show you how it’s done.”

You watched with crossed arms as Josh lined up a shot and tossed a dart at the wall, easily hitting one of the balloons and popping it. He turned to you with a proud smirk, making you shake your head.

“Alright, Mr. Professional, why don’t you help me out then?”

“Gladly.”

Josh wasted no time in stepping closer to you and wrapping his hand over yours, helping you hold the dart in what he insisted was the “correct” position. You tried to pay more attention than you had when he was explaining backflips yesterday, although a game of darts definitely had a lot less risk involved. Before you knew it, he was helping you toss a dart directly into a balloon at the other end of the room.

“See? That easy.”

“I guess you just teach me something new every day,” you smiled.

Josh bit down on his lip and turned away from you, probably in some attempt to hide the blush on his cheeks. You wanted to tease him about it, but decided that was a bad idea when there was a good chance you looked just as flustered as him. Instead, you wandered towards the balloons to pick up your darts. Unfortunately for you, Josh had other plans.

Just as you had collected your second dart, a balloon popped near your head and splattered paint in your direction. You had just enough time to register what was happening and jump back to avoid getting paint over the majority of your clothes, but you still felt a few splatters cover your cheeks.

“Josh!” you squealed, but it quickly turned to laughter. “What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t!” he joined your laughter. “I’m so sorry, Y/N.”

“You’re going to pay for that!”

Without a moment of hesitation, you swiped your finger through a particularly large glob of paint and started to run after Josh. He tried his best to dodge you, but, not wanting to ruin Tyler’s carefully placed decorations, ended up backed into a corner. With a satisfied smile, you reached up and drew a line of red paint right down Josh’s nose.

“Ok, I think that’s deserved,” he laughed.

You hadn’t initially realized you were pressed up against him until he started to laugh and you felt the movement of his chest against your own. Every point of contact was immediately on fire and you quickly took a step back, not wanting to make things uncomfortable. Before either of you had a chance to say anything, Tyler finally emerged from his bedroom, wearing something that definitely wasn’t the skeleton onesie the three of you had agreed on.

“What do you think of my costume?” he… well, you weren’t entirely sure what expression he was making. He currently had a sheet thrown over his head, complete with uneven cut out eye holes and drawn on fangs. Around his neck was a classic vampire cape that flowed out behind him.

“Are you a… vampire ghost?” you asked.

“Exactly. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to be, so I figured why not both?”

“Isn’t that, you know, not possible?” Josh added. “Since they’re both undead?”

Tyler sighed dramatically, “Because every other Halloween costume is so realistic.”

“Besides, what happened to our trio costume?” you frowned.

“Yeah, now it just looks like Y/N and I did a couple’s costume.”

A lightbulb immediately went off in your head. There had never been a trio costume in the first place.

“I wanted to stand out because I’m the host! Not to mention that the two of you make such a cute couple, I didn’t want to intrude on that.” You didn’t have to see Tyler’s face to know that there was a huge smirk plastered on it. “Also what did I say about you two getting dirty? You both have red paint all over your faces.”

“Yeah, I’m going to go get cleaned up,” you sighed.

You brushed past Tyler, making sure to give his shoulder a little bump, as you made your way to the bathroom. As soon as the door was shut behind you, you leaned against it and took a deep breath. Everything was fine, it was just a matching costume, not a confession of your feelings. Tyler had put you and Josh into far more awkward situations before and it had never been an issue.

Maybe it was holding Josh’s hand yesterday that was adding a whole new layer to the energy between you and Josh today.

With a sigh, you pushed the thoughts from your mind and bent down over the sink to carefully scrub the red paint away. Your focus tonight was going to be on the party, that was it. Between tour and your generally busy schedule, it wasn’t often that you got to have nights like tonight where everyone was together and you definitely weren’t about to let Tyler put a damper on that.

Josh had already cleaned up by the time that you finally emerged from the bathroom. The boys were once again in the kitchen, standing around the snacks but doing their best not to eat any before the rest of the guests arrived.

“Do you think it would be too cheesy to play some of our music at the party?” Tyler asked.

“Maybe a little, although I did see that Heathens got added to some Halloween playlists,” Josh answered.

“I think you could get away with two of your own songs, but not much more than that.”

“Fair enough.”

Your conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door. The three of you turned in its direction, hoping to catch a glimpse of who the first to arrive was, until Tyler finally skipped off to answer it. A few moments later, Mark and Brad were standing in the entryway, proudly displaying their costumes. Or at least, Mark was.

“Mario and Luigi, I like it,” Josh laughed.

“No, no, no, you’re mistaken,” Mark grinned. “I’m Markio.”

“Do you have a clever pun for your name, Brad?” you asked once you finally caught your breath after laughing.

“No,” he deadpanned.

“Alright,” you nodded.

“We tried Bradigi, but it didn’t have quite the ring to it that we were going for.”

“You were going for.”

“Alright, let’s get this party started,” Tyler grinned.

*      *      *

The party was in full swing now. Tyler’s living room was full of your friends in a variety of spooky costumes, most of whom were also tipsy. You were currently on the couch, nursing your own drink and watching the partygoers try to hold conversations with their drunk friends as they munched on Tyler’s creative snacks.

Josh collapsed down onto the couch next to you without warning, nearly making you spill your drink down the front of your onesie. You held back an insult, knowing he didn’t do it on purpose, and instead braced yourself to listen to whatever message he had brought you this time.

“Some people are playing Uno, if you want to join,” he said, letting a silly smile grace his lips. “It’s a drinking game, but you can drink whatever you want. Doesn’t have to have alcohol in it.”

“Are you going to play?”

“Mmmhmm. And I want you to come sit next to me.” He leaned into you slightly as he spoke, making heat rise to your cheeks.

“Ok, I’ll play a round of Uno.”

You stood up and helped Josh follow after you. He grabbed two more drinks for the two of you as you passed through the kitchen, and even went so far as to grab an entire handful of spider Oreos. You had to hold back a giggle when he dramatically winked as he did so, as if he had somehow pulled off the greatest heist of the century.

“Come on, Josh.”

Tyler, Mark, Brad, and a couple other people were already sitting around the floor, preparing their own drinks for the start of the game. You sat in the empty space next to Tyler and Josh wasted no time in plopping down next to you and sitting close enough that his knee was practically on top of yours. Tyler shot you a look because of this, but you simply shook your head and picked up the cards that were being dealt to you.

“What are the rules?” Mark asked.

Tyler went over the rules of Uno: The Drinking Game - another of his and Josh’s creations - while everyone sorted through their cards. You were trying to pay attention, but Josh kept leaning over and bumping your arm. When you would ask him what he wanted, he would just respond by saying he didn’t want you to forget that he was sitting next to you; something about him being tough competition.

“How many Red Bulls have you had tonight?” you asked as you noticed Tyler taking a long sip out of a familiar blue and silver can. The “ghost” part of his outfit had long since been discarded - he said it had been too difficult to eat with it on - for the cape and a pair of plastic vampire teeth instead. This also, naturally, included Tyler doing his best vampire hisses at people when they passed.

“Four. Wait, no, five? I’ve lost track.”

“Are you going to be able to sleep tonight?”

“Do I ever sleep?” he laughed.

“Fair enough.”

You rearranged the cards in your hand so that it would be easier for you to play the game. Just as it was about to start, Josh nudged your arm yet again, although this time he had a gift.

“For good luck,” he whispered with a dorky grin as he tried, and failed, to slyly pass you an Oreo.

“Thanks,” you said, pressing your lips together to avoid laughing too loudly. When you didn’t immediately eat the Oreo, he raised his eyebrows and pressed your hand closer to your mouth.

“Alright, Brad, you start.”

The game ended up going pretty well, although Josh was now considerably more drunk than he had been at the start, if that was even possible. He was now leaning on you completely shamelessly and reminding you how cool you were at every opportunity. You would be lying if you said you weren’t enjoying it.

“Where are you going?” Josh whined as you started to stand up. The game had long since ended, but your group had decided to stay sitting and swap stories over drinks.

“I was just going to get some water.”

“I’ll go with you.”

This, of course, required you to help Josh stand back up. As soon as he was on his feet, he wrapped an arm around you - insisting that it was to help him balance - and walked with you into the kitchen. Even when you reached up to grab a cup, he kept one arm firmly around your waist.

“Wait, no way!” A familiar voice cut through the noise just to your right. “I had no idea you guys were dating.”

You sighed and turned to face the figure, playing nervously with the cup in your hands. “We’re not.”

Her eyebrows furrowed, “You’re not? So… that’s not a couple’s costume?”

“It’s not,” you said, forcing a smile and making a mental note to chew Tyler out later. “And the only reason he’s hanging on to me is because he’s drunk. He has a habit of hanging onto people when he’s drunk.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Yeah.”

You were glad when she finally walked off, and also when Josh decided to keep his mouth shut. Once you had taken a second to calm your breathing back down, you refilled your water and walked back into the other room. Tyler helped Josh sit back down on the ground, though he did have a mind of his own when it came to where he was sitting. Rather than sitting next to Tyler, which had been Tyler’s intention, Josh ended up cross legged across from you.

“Hi, Josh,” you smiled.

“Hi, Y/N,” he said, giving you one of his famous crinkly-eyed smiles. His nose scrunched a little too, making you nearly melt on the spot.

“How are you feeling?”

“Wonderful. In fact, I feel almost as good as you look.”

You ignored the stares of everyone else sitting in your makeshift circle and kept your eyes on Josh. Sure, he could be a bit of a flirt when he got tipsy, but you had never experienced anything quite like this.

“Thank you.”

“Mmmhmm.” He paused for a moment and then craned his neck so he could look at Tyler. “Hey, Tyler.”

“Hey, Josh.”

“Hey, hey, did you know that your voice is really nice? I like when you sing.”

A shy smile passed over Tyler’s face and he mumbled a quiet thanks. Josh, obviously pleased with this reaction, then turned back to you.

“I don’t have a nice voice,” he shook his head while maintaining very serious eye contact with you. “I just play the drums and then I get calluses all over my hands. Look at this.”

He held a hand right up to your face. You gently grabbed his wrist and pushed it away from you so that you could actually see what he was trying to show you. His eyebrows knit together in confusion for a moment before relaxing again.

“You don’t have that many calluses, Josh. Your hands are very nice.”

“You think my hands are nice?”

You held back a laugh, afraid it might upset him. “Yes, very nice.”

“But look at your hands.”

He somehow managed to wriggle his one hand away from your grip and grabbed yours. You ignored Tyler’s stares as Josh very delicately picked up your hands and rested them on top of his fingers so that he could look at them. His thumbs ran gently over the backs of your palms, just barely ghosting against your skin.

“See? You don’t have any calluses. And your hands are so much smaller than mine. Look.”

Once again, your hands were being pulled in all different directions by Josh, this time to press your hands together so that he could see how much bigger his hands were. He very carefully lined up the bottoms of your palms for the most accurate depiction.

“My fingers are so much longer than yours!” he grinned, obviously pleased with himself. “Can you feel all the calluses on my hand?”

“Yes, I can.”

“What about now?”

You tried not to jump as Josh slid his fingers between yours and closed his hand. Slowly, yours did the same until you were essentially showing off your hand holding to the entire group. Josh, of course, didn’t mind, but you could practically feel every set of eyes that was watching you.

“I still feel them.”

Josh sighed dramatically and let your hands fall, though he kept your fingers interlaced. “That’s not fair. I don’t want you to feel my calluses when we hold hands, that’s embarrassing!”

“It’s not a big deal, Josh.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Hey, you know who has really small hands?” he smiled, changing the subject in an instant. He answered his own question before you had a chance to. “Tyler.”

“Hmm?” Tyler asked.

“Bro, let me see your hands.”

Tyler reluctantly held his hands out and Josh finally scooted away from you to investigate. He did the same thing he had with you where he delicately held Tyler’s hands in front of his face, but you took notice of the fact that he wasn’t gently running his thumbs over the back of Tyler’s palm. That made you smile.

“Your hands are so small and soft,” Josh said. “I wish my hands were small and soft.”

“Thanks, I think?”

The room went quiet as the song that had been playing came to an end. You immediately recognized the beginning of the next one that played, considering you had heard it at countless concerts. Tyler was already looking at you when you went to shoot him a look.

“You really did it,” you laughed.

He shrugged, “Just the one. I couldn’t resist.”

“Tyler!” Josh gasped, squeezing his friend’s hands a little tighter as he looked up to meet his eyes. “This is our song!”

Josh dropped Tyler’s hands in an instant and began to air drum in time with the song, much to the amusement of everyone around him. You sighed and took a long sip of what was left of your drink.

It was going to be a long night.

*      *      *

People finally started to leave around one in the morning. Josh was still drunk and following you around like a lost puppy, though he had sobered up somewhat. You were just glad that he hadn’t ended up puking in the middle of the living room, which had been a concern at one point.

“Ok, I think it’s time for us to head out,” Mark said, clapping his hands together. “Brad, you ready?”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

“Wait!” Josh called, pulling his head up from where it had previously been resting on your shoulder. “I have to say goodbye.”

“We all do,” you laughed.

You watched as Josh walked up to Mark and firmly placed his hands on either side of his face.

“Mark, I love you so much,” he said. “Thank you so much for taking awesome pic- videos of our concerts.”

“It’s no problem, bud,” Mark smiled, giving Josh a firm clap on the shoulder.

“And Brad!” Josh continued, doing the same to him as he had done to Mark. “Wow, your beard is so nice. I love you, man.”

Brad nodded, his lips firmly pressed together. “Sounds about right.”

Once they were out the door, it was finally just you, Tyler, and Josh left. You were exhausted, but the house was a mess and you didn’t want to leave Tyler to clean up everything by himself, especially since you knew Josh wouldn’t be any help.

“Where do you want to start?” you asked, turning to Tyler.

“I say we start in the living room and work from there.”

“Good plan.”

*      *      *

Josh’s POV

“Y/N!” I called.

“What?” they answered from the other room.

“Will you come sit on the couch with me?”

I listened as their footsteps grew steadily closer. When they appeared around the corner, my face immediately grew into a smile.

“I’ll come sit with you once Tyler and I are done cleaning. If you want it to go faster, then you can help.”

“I am helping! By eating these chips,” I grinned, holding up the bag for added effect.

Y/N shot me a look before they turned and walked back into the other room. I could hear them and Tyler quietly talking, but I couldn’t make out anything they were saying. The crunching of chips echoing in my head was doing nothing to help that, either.

The bag of chips was nearly gone by the time Y/N finally joined me on the couch. I immediately laid down and rested my head in their lap, eager to be close to them. Normally I would be too scared to even graze their hand on accident, but something about the alcohol in my system was giving me all the confidence I needed.

“Is this ok?” I mumbled.

“Yeah, you’re fine.”

“Good, because I didn’t want to move.”

Y/N laughed and rested a hand on my head. They slowly started to brush their hands through my hair, nearly lulling me into a sleep. When Tyler started to talk too, I knew there was no way that I would be staying awake for more than a few more minutes.

I floated in and out of sleep until Tyler finally shook me awake for good and told me I should move to the guest room. When I started to protest, he shot me a look and nodded in the direction of the hallway.

“Are you going to be ok getting dressed?” Tyler asked. He was leaned in the doorway while I stumbled my way towards the bed.

“I’ll be fine,” I mumbled. “Where’s Y/N?”

“Josh, I know you…” he turned and looked over his shoulder, “...love them, but you don’t need to be with them at every waking moment.”

“Yes, I do!”

“I’ll be right back. You get into pajamas.”

Tyler shut the door and walked off before I had a chance to say anything else. While I waited for him to return, I slowly shuffled around the room to grab my pajamas and get changed into them. I felt a lot more comfortable once I was in sweatpants and a t-shirt instead of my skeleton onesie.

I was about to call out for Tyler when I heard him talking to Y/N just outside the door. Letting my curiosity get the best of me, I slowly crept towards the door and put my ear up against it.

“Where did you want to sleep tonight? I can take the couch, if you want me to. Tomorrow is going to be a long night and I know you already don’t sleep well away from home,” Tyler said.

“Are you sure? I really don’t mind taking the-”

I suddenly pulled the door open, making both Tyler and Y/N jump. They watched me with raised eyebrows while I took a moment to process what I had just done.

“They can sleep in here with me.”

“Josh,” Tyler sighed.

“I need them to protect me! Tomorrow is Halloween which means there will be scary creatures out.”

Tyler looked to Y/N, who simply shrugged. “I mean, it eliminates the problem of who has to sleep on the couch.”

“If you’re cool with it, then I won’t stop you.”

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Y/N smiled.

“Alright, I’ll see you in the morning then.”

“Goodnight, Ty.”

“Goodnight!” I chimed in.

“Good luck with him,” Tyler laughed.

“Thanks, I’ll need it.”

I smiled as Y/N walked into the room with me and Tyler walked off down the hall. While Y/N dug around in their bag for pajamas, I collapsed back down onto the bed. It creaked a little from the sudden weight.

“Damn,” Y/N muttered.

“What?”

“I’ll be right back.”

I watched as Y/N quickly opened the door and disappeared from the room, hopefully not to tell Tyler that they wanted to sleep on the couch, after all. The mere thought of it was upsetting.

When Y/N returned, they were wearing an oversized t-shirt over a pair of sweatpants, much like me, although I was sure that it wasn’t their shirt. They tossed their skeleton onesie down onto their stuff and started to scroll through their phone.

“Whose shirt is that?” I asked.

“Tyler’s?” they said, looking up at me. “Why?”

“Why are you wearing Tyler’s shirt?”

“Because I forgot pajamas and didn’t want to sleep in the onesie.”

“Why don’t you wear my shirt?” I frowned.

They finally turned off their phone and slipped it into the pocket of their sweatpants. “Because you don’t have any extras here and Tyler does. Is somebody jealous?”

“No,” I huffed, crossing my arms tightly over my chest. “I just think you would look better in my shirt.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. Here, take it.”

Y/N tried to stop me, but it was too late. My shirt was off and sitting in a small heap next to the bed. When they raised their eyebrows at me, I simply gave them my sweetest smile.

“Now you can wear it.”

“I’m not going to wear your shirt, Josh.”

“Why not?” I whined. “I took it off just for you.”

I could have sworn that I saw a hint of a smile cross Y/N’s face, but they were too far and my vision wasn’t quite clear enough for me to be able to tell.

“I’m already in Tyler’s shirt and I’m not going to take it off just to put yours on.”

“Do you like him better or something?”

“No, I-”

“Are you in love with Tyler?”

“I’m not in love with Tyler,” they sighed. “He’s my best friend and nothing more.”

Y/N slowly wandered over and took a seat next to where I was laying on the bed. They were close enough that I could feel the body heat radiating from them, but not close enough that I could move to touch them without making my intentions obvious.

“I’m in love with someone.”

“Who?” they asked softly.

“I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.”

“You’re such a tease,” Y/N laughed, shoving at my leg. “I really thought you were drunk enough to tell me your secrets.”

“I’ll never tell you my secrets,” I grinned.

“I’ll get them out of you someday. Now, are you ready to go to bed?”

I stuck my bottom lip out, “I want to talk to you more.”

“We can talk tomorrow.”

“Please, Y/N?”

“I’m really tired after tonight. Can you please not make this difficult?”

“Ok.”

I got under the covers while Y/N got up and flipped the overhead light off. There was still a lamp sitting on the bedside table, casting weird shadows onto the walls, especially when Y/N walked around the bed.

“Are you comfortable, Josh?”

“Yep.”

“You don’t feel like you’re going to puke, do you?”

“Nope.”

“Ok, then I’m going to turn the light off.”

The room looked different in the dark, and my drunk state wasn’t doing anything to help the weird patterns that were dancing on the walls. I pulled the blanket up a little closer to my neck, hoping it would help me feel a little more secure. Just as I was about to shut my eyes, an idea popped into my head.

“Y/N?” I whispered.

“What?”

“I’m cold.”

“That’s probably because you threw your shirt on the ground. I’m the perfect temperature.”

I sighed. This wasn’t going as planned.

“Will you cuddle with me?”

“Josh, I’m not going to cuddle with you. Just put your shirt back on.”

“I don’t want to. I like sleeping shirtless.”

“Then get another blanket and stop complaining.”

“No, Y/N,” I whined.

“Joshua Dun, drunk or not, it is not my job to baby you.”

“Please, I just want to cuddle with you. It’s cold and I don’t like the dark.”

“Well if you would actually close your eyes and stop talking, you might fall asleep so you don’t have to deal with it anymore.”

“I’m not going to be able to fall asleep, I’m too paranoid.”

Y/N was quiet for a moment. At first I thought they had finally given up and decided to ignore me, but then they shifted closer to me, bringing their pillow along with them.

“Where do you want me?”

“Could you just like… wrap around me, maybe?”

Y/N hesitantly slid one of their arms across my chest. Their hand went up to rest on my shoulder, sending familiar tingles down the length of my arm. I used one of my arms to wrap around them and rest on their hip, holding them close to me. They laid their head just above my collarbone, making it so that I could feel the steadiness of their breath against my skin. I was suddenly very glad I had decided to take my shirt off earlier, even if it had been for a dumb reason.

“Is this helping?” they asked.

“Yeah. Are you comfortable?”

“Mmmhmm. Are you?”

“I’ve never been more comfortable in my life.”

“Me too.”

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

“Goodnight, Josh.”

I was asleep within minutes.

*      *     *      *     *

Taglist

@topownsmyheart​ @tylersheavydirtysoul​ @wearebxnditos​ @gaiatheroyalrabbit​

[blurry-fics]

Kae & Sav’s Spooky Special Masterlist

Pumpkin carving. Halloween party. Ghost hunting. In your eyes, these were the essential activities in order to have the spookiest Halloween yet, and of course you had to bring your two best friends along for the ride. While you’re determined to make this year the best yet, your friends have other ideas.

Will this year live up to your expectations? Or will some unexpected shenanigans make it all come crashing down?

*     *     *     *     *

Before You Read

Pumpkin Palooza

Skeleton Shindig

Apparition Antics

[blurry-fics]

Sketches

Pairing: Tyler Joseph x Reader

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1491

Request: Hi Kae! Could you write sth where Tyler accidentally finds out that his s.o. can draw, but hardly ever does so cause of insecurities? Thanks 💛 -Anonymous

Author’s Note: I haven’t really written many fics set during the hiatus, so this was super fun to do! Hopefully all of you enjoy it as well :) (gif credit)

“Ok, what do you think of something like this?”

Tyler slid his laptop over so that it was now sitting in front of you. On the screen was a listing for a plain, brown jacket, complete with some large pockets and a nice zipper right down the center. You and Tyler had spent all morning looking through various clothing websites, seeking out inspiration and potential outfits for the next set of music videos. Since it was the first introduction the fans would get to the new era, as well as the end of the hiatus, Tyler was really putting the pressure on himself.

“Would you wear it just like that?” you asked.

“Well, no. It would probably have some yellow on it and we could dirty it up a bit to make it look worn,” Tyler said, absentmindedly pointing at the jacket. “I don’t think this is it.”

He slowly closed the laptop and buried his face in his hands, letting out a long sigh as he did so. You reached over and lightly rubbed at his back, making sure to give a little extra attention to his shoulders. Between finishing up the album and preparing to end the hiatus in a few short months, Tyler had been extra stressed lately. You were doing your best to support him in any way that you could.

“It’s like I have this whole vision in my head and then I can’t pinpoint, what, a jacket? It’s ridiculous,” he continued.

“Sometimes having a vision can make it harder because you’re looking for something that might not even exist.”

“I know. It just feels like I haven’t found anything that’s even close to what I’m imagining.”

“Ok, I think I have an idea,” you said. “Just wait here for a second.”

You left Tyler sitting at the dining table with a confused expression on his face as you ran off to the office. When you returned with a piece of paper and a pencil in hand, he had already gone back to scrolling through the endless pages of utility jackets that the website had to offer.

“What’s this idea of yours?” he asked as you sat back down next to him.

“I want you to close your eyes.”

“Eyes are closed,” he nodded.

“Ok, now picture the outfit in your head. I want you to think of all the little details and everything.”

Tyler thought for a moment. “Ok.”

“Now describe it to me in as specifically as you can.”

While Tyler described the outfit, you sketched it all onto the sheet of paper you had grabbed from the office. It had been awhile since the last time you did some sketching, a combination of never having the free time to do it and letting your insecurities get in the way when you did, but all of your old techniques came right back to you as soon as the pencil hit the paper. Keeping up with Tyler’s descriptions was a breeze, and you even managed to sketch in his face just for fun.

“Then you add the yellow tape over the shoulders and I think that’s it.”

“Hold on just a second,” you said, drawing out the end of the word as you quickly sketched in some tape. “Ok, do you want to take a look?”

“Yeah.”

Tyler slowly blinked his eyes open and leaned over so that he could see the piece of paper sitting in front of you. His eyes immediately went wide and he pulled it closer to him, letting his eyes roam over your haphazard sketch.

“Y/N,” he said plainly. “You drew this?”

“Yes.”

“Just now?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, this is amazing.”

You felt your cheeks getting hot from Tyler’s obvious impression with your artistic ability. It was never something you had really made a fuss about drawing attention to, mostly because you had never entirely convinced yourself that you were living up to the hype other people gave you.

“It’s just a sketch,” you shrugged. “Nothing special.”

Tyler had fully picked up the paper now. “Nothing special? Y/N, we’ve been dating for four years and I had no idea you could draw like this. If I hadn’t listened to you sketch this as I was speaking, I wouldn’t have believed you did it in ten minutes. Look! That’s me!”

“Yeah, that’s you,” you laughed.

“Also you totally nailed the outfit design. That’s almost exactly what I was picturing in my head.”

“I thought getting a sketch of the picture in your head would help you, and everyone else, find something that resembled what you wanted for the video. If nothing else, we can put a little more manpower into finding it now that we all have a clear vision.”

“This was a great idea,” Tyler nodded. His eyes were still glued to the sketch. “Thank you so much.”

He leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to your lips.

“I’m happy to help, Ty.”

Tyler looked over the sketch for a little while longer before he finally set it back down. “Do you, um, have any sketchbooks or anything? I would love to see more of your art, Y/N.”

Now it was your turn to raise your eyebrows in shock. There had only been a small handful of times in your life when people asked to look through your sketchbooks.

“Yeah, I have some in the closet upstairs.”

“Alright, let’s go-”

“Hey, hey,” you said, reaching out and putting a hand on Tyler’s arm. “Why don’t we get through the rest of the outfit ideas you have in your head and then we can go look through my sketchbooks.”

Tyler slowly sat back down in his chair, “Yeah, that’s probably not a bad idea.”

So that’s what you did. Tyler described another handful of outfits to you, all of which you sketched down onto a piece of paper. Each time, he was just as impressed with the outcome. You were also enjoying seeing a small piece of Tyler’s universe come together.

When you had finally gotten through all of Tyler’s ideas, you led him upstairs to the closet where you had tucked your sketchbooks away and laid them all out. You sat cross-legged on the floor with Tyler and watched as he slowly flipped through their pages, making comments on nearly every sketch or full-size drawing that you had done. No matter how many times you tried to brush off his compliments, Tyler insisted that they were sincere.

“I swear I’ve never seen you draw once during the entirety of our relationship,” Tyler said as he flipped through one of your high school sketchbooks. “Until today, that is.”

“I stopped drawing as much once I got out of high school. Sometimes I would draw if I got bored while you were out at meetings, but even those moments were few and far between.”

Tyler looked up at you, “Why did you stop?”

“I wasn’t happy with what I was creating and it slowly started to become more of an obligation than a hobby. I never really had a reason to keep doing it, either.”

“Why did you hate what you were creating? These are beautiful.”

“You know how it is,” you sighed. “Sometimes you just hate everything you create with no real reason for it. Not to mention that I always had friends who were better than me, so I convinced myself that my art would never live up to the things they were creating.”

“You can’t compare art, though,” Tyler frowned. “Everyone has their own unique style and vision that could never be compared to someone else’s. You’re the only person that can make art quite like this, Y/N.”

“I know, trust me, I’ve heard it a million times. I would love to get back into art, it’s just hard to overcome that wall of insecurity.”

Tyler gently closed the sketchbook he was holding and set it back on the top of the pile.

“Well, I would love to help you get back into it however I can. Your art is beautiful and worth sharing and I would hate to see you shut it away because you fail to see the beauty in it.”

Your mouth slowly curled up into a smile. “Thanks, Ty. That means a lot.”

He held his arms out and you happily accepted his hug, making sure to press a quick kiss to his cheek as you did so. You hadn’t expected Tyler to be so supportive of your art, but you would be lying if you said you weren’t happy that he did. Drawing had been a huge part of your life, and you were glad that you had the opportunity to bring it back with plenty of people to support you.

“You know, there’s some more concepts I have that I would love to see on paper, if you’re up for the challenge.”

You smiled and kissed him again, “Absolutely.”

[ohprettyweeper-moved]

Fluff & Scruff

Summary: You stop Tyler from making a change to his appearance.  Pairing: Tyler x Reader Word Count: 615 A/N: This fic, both scenes, was borne of a convo with Kae and Sav. Thanks for the inspo, frens! Hope everyone enjoys reading this :) Oh, and I apologize for the bad sizing on the gif, I really loved it for this drabble and couldn’t find it in a tumblr friendly size :( 

GIF found via Google Image Search. 

“TYLER ROBERT JOSEPH!” 

You ran up to the guest bathroom from the basement faster than you had ran in a long time. The moment you heard the clippers buzz, you knew what was going to come next. You hit the doorway of the bathroom just in time. 

Tyler was frozen in place, the clippers in one hand, and his other hand running through his hair. He looked over to you, brows raised. “What’s up, babe?”

A little breathless, you pointed a very stern finger in your husband’s direction. “Don’t you dare buzz your hair.”

“Why not?” he looked confused, and you couldn’t blame him. 

You crossed your arms over your chest. “Because not only will you cause an uproar within your fandom, sweetheart, but you will have a very unhappy wife. You know that I love you, hair or not, but if I can intervene, just this one time, I’m gonna do it.”

Tyler fiddled with the length of hair on top of his head again. “You really think it looks good?”

Convinced he was dropped the idea of buzzing his head again, you took a seat on the bathroom counter and took the clippers from his hand. “Let’s put the clippers down, shall we? I love your hair when it’s longer. It’s soft and I can run my fingers through it when you’re begging me to scratch your head to help you sleep. I love you, buzzed or not, but I really like it when you have your longer hair.” You rubbed your hands lightly along his chin and cheeks. “Especially when you’ve got the scruff to go with it.”

He moved between your legs and cupped your face in his hands. After kissing you sweetly, he sighed. “I can’t really say no to you.”

“You’ve never been able to.”

Tyler chuckled. “That’s the truth.” Sighing, he surveyed his hair in the mirror once again. “What if I just … shaved the sides? Not really a mohawk, but something like it.”

You thought on that for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I like that idea. But, I better stay here and supervise. Wouldn’t want to leave you alone and have you ‘accidentally’ shave it all.”

Tyler laughed again; you knew him too well. 

* * * * *

At the next show, fans were anxious to see Tyler. As some sort of prank, he had hinted on social media that what his fans referred to as “the floof” was gone. You were tempted to let everyone know you had saved it, but why ruin the fun?

Josh was already sidestage, waiting to get things started with his lighted torch. You and Tyler were in an area essentially under the stage; the roar of the crowd was dulled but not silenced. 

“They’re waiting for you, sir,” you chuckled. 

Tyler held his hand out to you. “They can wait a minute — my cue’s not even up yet. Hold my hand till I have to go.”

When you had first started dating Tyler, butterflies permanently fluttered in your stomach. You loved him now more than ever, but moments like this brought back those butterflies. You clasped your hand with his while the two of you waited for his cue to take the stage.

“When they are all excited for your new haircut, make sure you give me credit. Tell them I said ‘you’re welcome’,” you teased. 

“I will,” Tyler smirked. He pulled you close for a quick kiss, then sent you on your way. 

You didn’t always stick around to watch the show like you had in the beginning, but tonight, you just couldn’t resist the fans’ reaction to the fluff and scruff combination you had managed to stop Tyler from shaving off. 

[blurry-fics]

Before You Read AWATJ

As per usual, I wanted to provide a few disclaimers before you read A Weekend At The Josephs, my entry for @ohprettyweeper‘s You!AU Challenge!

As stated above, this is a you!au, meaning that it is not a reader pairing. The challenge was to put yourself into a story, which means that it is Tyler x Kae. Normal fics will return next week.

Like with most of my fics, the timeline in this story does not totally fit what happened in real life! And like I say every time: it’s fiction, so I can do that :)

I think that’s everything! This is a pretty tame miniseries, so there wasn’t really much that I needed to talk about. If you want to check out more about the challenge, you can do so here!

Enjoy the miniseries :)

[blurry-fics]

Request List

Hey, everyone! So, it has come to my attention that people’s asks are getting eaten? And since I want to make sure everyone has a fair shot of getting their request written, I decided to go ahead and compile all the ones I received so that all of you can double check!

As I said to the ask earlier, I’m going to rely on the honor system here. Please don’t send in an additional request if you didn’t send it in before requests were closed! Also please remember that just because I received your ask does not mean it’s guaranteed to get written! I have a lot of projects coming up so I have to be extra picky this go around! Anyway, here’s the list:

(Putting it under a cut because it’s long)

what if you did one where Josh works at Guitar Center and the reader comes in because she is interested in learning an instrument (drums? uke? guitar? idek man) and the rest is history :) -faceofcontvsions

angst song imagine for Josh to the song I’ll Be Good by Jaymes Young ? please.

Iris - GooGoo dolls for Tyler song imagine.

Unloving You by Alex Aiono for Josh song imagine please? Angst?

I have a request! So, say the reader is either in the military or something along those lines and promised Tyler they'd be back for Christmas. However, something came up, and they couldn't make it. It was a distraction to throw Tyler off since his alumni game or something was coming up, and the reader was gonna surprise him there. Well, while they're having they have the players introduce their names, the reader surprises Tyler or so. Maybe Josh or family is the only ones who knew about the gift

As You Need - Alex Aiono for Tyler Joseph Fluff ?

Unloving You By Alex Aiono For Josh. ANGST. Don’t Know If That’s Okay But I Hope So .

josh dun fic where its his birthday and he gets and hurt and has to go to the hospital? (reader is a doctor there!!)

Bed sharing fic with Josh? I'll leave all the creativity up to you!!!!

“Hi friends just here to remind you not to imagine your otp on a hammock together. Don’t imagine Person B is asleep on Person A’s chest and definitely don’t imagine Person A with one foot on the floor so they can rock the hammock in hope of keeping Person B asleep” -ohprettyweeper

Hey I was wondering if you could write another imagine set in Trench? It doesn’t really matter if it’s for Josh or Tyler. It’s fine if you don’t do this, I love your writing ❤️❤️

Can you do a fic where the reader is Tyler’s younger sister and he calls her to random midnight food runs and 7/11 trips to get her away from being stressed with school work and stuff please

Hiiiiiii, would you mind writing a Josh x reader inspired by screen, where the reader just got really bad news, like a family member dying or something, and tries to hide the pain, but Josh sees through their facade? Mostly fluff? Thanks!💕💕 -gaiatheroyalrabbit

Outnumbered by Dermot Kennedy song imagine - Tyler? Fluff?

Hi love. could you do a Josh Dun imagine song thing for the song Every time You Leave by I Prevail? Thank you. 💕 -svintsandghosts

Hi Kae! Could you write sth where Tyler accidentally finds out that his s.o. can draw, but hardly ever does so cause of insecurities? Thanks 💛

If You Don’t Use The Song Stop Asking Me To Come Back by James Arthur. Can You Write It For Josh But A Separate One

Hi!!! Your writing is amazing! I was wondering if you can write a fic where the reader is the opening act for TØP and fluff ensues between Tyler and reader. Bonus: bromance with josh + Tyler + reader

Hey :) I really like the idea of Tyler on tour with pregnant reader. Maybe they’re a few months along and enjoying tour before the baby comes.

heyy i wanted to ask if you do song requests too? if yes, i’d love it if you did fire on fire by sam smith with josh. your writing amazes me every time skbsksbskdbd

ooh yay! So like its a trench au and like basically they're both banditos and they go on a mission (like the nico and the niners music video) and during it like the reader almost gets recaptured back into dema and josh saves them and the end is like super cute like they're by the fire all snuggled up or something thank you so much lol :) -simply_jenna3000 (wattpad)

Hey, love your fics! Maybe you could do a ty x reader where the reader is in an accident and loses a leg and is stressed dealing with physical therapy etc and Tyler helps her 💞

“What the fuck, Dun?” -spookyjiimfanfiction

Disney Fic -spookyjiimfanfiction

Can I get a Tyler sister fic where something happened (idk what) but josh( basically your other brother) saved you from it and you try to pretend it didn’t happen then Tyler finds out and angst and sibling fluff at the end please