drown (joshler)

part twenty five

a/n: i will bring this fic to an end pretty soon! i absolutely love this one and i'm
so happy with its progress. thanks to all of you that have voted/commented on this fic i greatly appreciate it!

josh turned the corner onto Elmwood Street as tyler slept up against the window. it was around 2 am.

this city didn't seem to stop at 2 am like the hospital did. people still walked the streets, the 7/11 still bore white lights, and the coffee shop still emitted white steam from its top. it sort of resembled detroit, but less grey and sad.

josh shook his head as he looked at the neighborhoods he drove past and tried to shake the hospital memories from his head.

not all of them, though. like how he met tyler, he doesn't want to forget that. he doesn't want to forget tyler's first birthday either. he does want to forget the putrid smell, the terrible, yellow lighting, and the insensitive doctors. he did want to forget all of that.

josh pulled into the gravel driveway and turned off his car. he sat in the silence for a while before waking tyler up. he shook his shoulder softly as he stirred awake.

"ty," he whispered as tyler turned around. "we're here, we're home." tyler nodded as he undid his seat belt and josh grabbed his wheelchair out of the back.

tyler dozed off in the short elevator ride as josh nervously twisted the foam covers on the handles. he was scared tyler wouldn't like he apartment.

he wheeled tyler into the front door of the apartment and flicked on the lights he had set to 'dim' so they wouldn't bother tyler. he looked down at tyler as he weakly looked around.

"well?" josh asked, still nervous.

"josh..." he paused. "it's fantastic." he said quietly, almost inaudible.

"let's get you to bed."

josh picked tyler up out of his wheelchair in the bedroom and carried him bridal style to the bed. he set him down on the bed and walked into the kitchen to turn off the lights and grab his and tyler's bags.

he sat down on the bed, and watched the white smoke rise for the coffee shop roof across the street. tyler moved his hand over slowly and put it on top of josh's and squeezed softly. josh smiled and lowered himself into the soft bed. he held tyler to his chest as josh laid on his back.

that night, josh dreamt of chocolate locks, oversized sweaters, and All My Sons.