thirty five

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

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

But not Josh, "You spelled it wrong, you dumbass."

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

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

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

"Sure, I'm still winning, so why not?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I think... either the twenty second during night or the twenty third during the morning."

"Are you excited?"

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

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

"I guess my parents want them around for Christmas," Tyler whispers again, sadly, because he's as much their child than Jay and Madison...

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

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

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

Tyler nods against his friend's shoulder, eyes fluttering shut sleepily, "I'm okay, Josh."

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

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

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

"I won't get on the camera though," Tyler confesses, and Josh only laughs a little.

"Whatever, dude. Good night."

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

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thanks you guys! <3

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