remember that you're mine {joshler}

viii. but i still remember that day we met in december

A/N: brief mentions of nausea and murder again :)

-x-

Tyler blinked his eyes open, wincing at the bright lights in his eyes. He closed his eyes again, there was a hard pulsing feeling in his arms and chest and an even bigger throbbing in his head. He winced as he slowly reached a careful hand to feel the tender bruising lump on his forehead. He dropped his hand lifelessly, his whole body hurt but he knew it was just his head causing the sensation, the impact of the force causing his brain to practically shift out of its socket, as though it was somehow loose now and able to rattle around like a ball inside a large container when shaken.

He panicked then, his brain slowly processing what was going on, his other senses snapping sharply back into focus, he was lay on a bed he could feel the cool sheets underneath him. Trying to steady his breathing he forced his eyes to open again, having adjusted to the light he realised it wasn't as bright as he thought, in fact it was simply warm streaks of winter sunlight filtering through the crack in the dark curtains on the window opposite him, the light slicing across one half of his face.

Just then he heard a door opening and looked up to see Josh walk in, beads of water rolling off his shoulders as he clutched the towel around his toned abdomen to hold it up, his other hand rubbed a second towel over his tousled curls. Tyler went to turn away, his face growing a little hot but his movements were sluggish and took effort, so before he could Josh noticed him.

"You're awake." He said in a tone that Tyler thought was almost excited He sat down on the edge of the bed dropping the towel in his hair by his feet. "I'm sorry about your head, I-I didn't know any other way to make sure you had no idea where you were going."

A wave of what Tyler thought was understanding waved over him and he tried to sit up, he moved to quickly his entire vision blacking out. When he came to Josh was holding him up by his elbows telling him to "take it easy", a look of concern plastered across his face.

Tyler stared back, trying to take in all the information given to him even though his brain was screaming for a break. He needed to see...

Suddenly Tyler's lips were on Josh's hot and heavy, his hand pulling on the nape of his neck, his whole body leaning onto Josh's to prop him up and his lips worked desperately against Josh's, by instinct Josh's body responded at first before he came to his senses.

Josh wrapped his fist in Tyler's t-shirt, pushing insistently to get Tyler to pull away, but as soon as he did he was panting heavily and leaning on Josh's vice grip on his arm and shirt. "Tyler how hard did I hit your head?" Josh sounded horrified, his face full of concern.

"I'm sorry," Tyler breathed out. "I just-" his head lolled and he almost passed out but Josh caught him, one hand moving to hold his head in place so he could look him in the eye.

"Tyler look at me." He said softly, his thumb pulling the bottom of his eye, he leaned in close to assess the pupils before letting go of the skin and moving back out of his personal space. He moved his hand up Tyler's face towards his forehead, hesitating as though asking silent permission to look at the injury, Tyler attempted a nod. Josh didn't miss the way just hovering his thumb over it caused Tyler to become even more disorientated and screw his eyes shut. "You have a concussion." He stated simply and Tyler gave him a bemused look.

"No, no, I'm fine." He attempted to hold himself up on his own but instantly fell against Josh's chest, Josh chuckled ever so slightly at his stubbornness.

"You're not fine Tyler, I'm so sorry I never meant to hurt you like this." He could feel an edge of panic in his words, his breathing hitching the tiniest amount. Tyler just pressed further into his chest, he was warm despite how sopping wet he still was.