The Good Life ~ Troyler AU

forty-six - troye

The noise of the gunshot exploded in my eardrums just as I caught a fistful of Tyler's clothes and yanked me to him. He toppled onto me, a sickeningly light weight falling straight into my arms like a dropped stone, and a dry scream rose in my throat, especially when I saw all the blood all over his back and head - but he was breathing, hard and fast, clinging to me and whining with terror.

He was alive.     

And on the floor behind him was Logan's body.

"Good riddance," came Phil's voice as he walked awkwardly in, hampered by Dan clinging to his side like a koala, and slipped his gun back into his belt. He half-smiled at me as moved away from the door to let Chris, PJ and Caspar out. Connor stayed, wringing his hands, but I ignored him.

"Did you -" I started, and then Tyler suddenly went boneless, his head falling over my shoulder. I grabbed at him in panic, feeling for any injuries, but he just seemed to be half-unconscious; I didn't blame him. I lifted him, grimacing when I could feel every bone under his skin without even trying, and slung him onto my back where clung on tightly, desperate and sleepy.

I hummed gently in his ear. "It's okay." I told him, confident this time that I was right, and he relaxed against me.

Phil watched with trepidation; at this point, the only person he knew how to love was Dan. "I'm gonna go." he said finally. "Howell and I are gonna get off the grid. He - we just need -" Phil's voice cracked rawly and then, like he and Tyler were dominoes, Dan lost his footing, jerking Phil downwards with the force of his fall. I grimaced to see my old friend like that; if Tyler was damaged, Dan was something past the grave.

"Shit," Phil grunted, but he held Dan like he was made of glass, and turned and left without another word. I hadn't expected a big goodbye but I wanted to go after him - mostly because now he'd left me with Connor.

"Did you know about Phil?" was the first thing I asked him, clipped and cold, and Connor kicked at the ground.

"Yes." He bit his lip. "We should leave. I called the police and an ambulance and the fire brigade, but I think it's out n-"

I wasn't listening. "But you didn't know when Phil was coming, did you?" I said, trying to keep my voice calm so I didn't wake Tyler. "He could have been ages away. And you didn't stop Logan."

"I knew he was close -"

"YOU DON'T GET TO GAMBLE WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES!" I shoved Connor hard and he just took it as I yelled in his long-suffering face, shouting until I barely knew what I was saying - screaming that he had risked Tyler's life and that he'd let Tyler get hurt without even trying to stop it and that I hate hate hated him.

"How could you?" I spat out in the middle of the tirade and suddenly Connor pushed me back, his face contorting.

"How could I?" he snarled. "How could you? You can't expect me to pick up all the pieces every time you fuck up -"

"You're supposed to be my friend -"

"Do you even know what that fucking means anymore?"

"P-p-please s-stop y-yelling guys -"

"I know more than you do, Connor!"

He shoved me again, harder, and this time I hit him and it turned into a blur of sudden bursts of blood and his fists on my face and my knee in his stomach and we hit the desk - and then I heard Tyler's voice scramble above the furious roar in my ears like a bursting dam.

"Stop!"

Connor and I drew away from each other at the sound. He looked away, panting hard, and I stared at Tyler - his hands in fists at his sides, his whole body shaking.

"You're scaring me," he breathed, and I reached out and hugged Tyler as tightly as I dared. I buried my face in his hair and breathed him in, unable to get enough of his scent, and he was holding onto me so tightly that it hurt, but I didn't care. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

"I'm sorry," I tried to say, "To both of you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." And I cried because Tyler was broken and withering against my chest and because I'd just fought my best friend and because I'd fucked up so much that I didn't know how to get back to where I'd started.

Tyler smiled at me. Sort of. His pupils were still blown wide with fear. Connor wrapped his arms around my stomach and I stood between the people I cared most about in the world but did not deserve, and when Tyler collapsed against me with the pain of his mental and physical states I held him up as sirens started to wail on the street and blue and red light painted us like an impressionist painting, throbbing with life and dead as 2D paper.