Title: Holly Roller, Blow me over
By: mesonoxiac
Summary: Tyler needs help washing the black paint off his hands. Josh isn't going to say no.
Words: 3,697
Mark called cut on their last shot of the day of Tyler as Blurryface, rapping to the camera and clutching his ukulele, strumming out a final chord. A few crew members cheered; Josh watched from the sidelines silently as Tyler stood from his stool in front of the camera with a timid smile on his face. "Thanks guys," he said quietly. "It means a lot. All your work." The few members around the set started to clap him on the shoulder, shake his hand. Others gravitated toward Josh to shake his hand as well; he offered out a hand and a polite smile to those who did.
When the crew finally started to take down the set and they finished putting away their instruments, Josh saw Tyler glide over to him from the corner of his eye. Josh turned to him and shot him a shy smile; Tyler replied with a faint grimace. Josh's mouth quirked into a slight frown as Tyler slotted himself into Josh easily, wrapping his arms around Josh's waist carefully and tucking his head into Josh's neck. "Hey," Josh mumbled in Tyler's ear as he wrapped his arms around Tyler. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good," Tyler mumbled. "Just was a lot today, you know?" He sighed into Josh's neck and paused. "So many people around."
"Hmmm," Josh mumbled.
"Hey," Tyler said. He leaned back and carefully unwound his arms from around Josh, hovering his painted hands in the air. He glanced up at Josh, his currently contacted irises searching Josh's eyes. "You think there's a bathroom around here?" Tyler asked.
Josh furrowed his eyebrows. He had just seen Tyler exit the only bathroom on set half an hour ago to put his contacts in.
"Yeah, there's one down the hall," Josh said slowly.
"Cool," Tyler said easily. He rubbed the back of his neck and then retracted his hand quickly, looking down at his blackened hands with a look that could only be described as regret. "Uh-I'm gonna need help washing this off," he said slowly, waving his painted hands and tilting his head to show his painted neck. "You mind?"
"No?" Josh said. "But uh, it's already coming off, man."
Tyler shrugged and pulled his beanie down further on his head, and made a noise of exasperation once he realized he once again touched something. He balled his hands into fists and stared at them with a dejected expression. "Honestly, I'm going to need help not touching anything for the next 10 minutes," Tyler said. He blinked and looked up at Josh grimly, biting his lip a little. "And also, the contacts."
Josh narrowed his eyes at Tyler, mimicking Tyler and biting his lip. Josh was getting a vague feeling like Tyler was reaching to get his help for something beyond just washing off paint; there was something in the way Tyler's shoulders were stiff, begging to be unwound, yet he was trying to hunch over. Josh figured it was just the aftermath of performing in a music video as the personification of his insecurities; even worse, he'd done it in front of a dozen people who he was acquaintances with who had never seen this side of him before.
