Glowing Eyes || Adopted by Josh Dun

winter

Lynn's POV

Life had fallen back into a pattern. Josh, Tyler, Jenna and I would spend time on the tour bus before reaching a new city. Josh and I would explore a few hours before the show (which only seemed to be getting better). I would busy myself with writing, playing piano, and doing schoolwork online. Every once in a while I would get Josh to help me, but often times he didn't really know either. He'd just help me google it on his phone, which was fine by me. He had gotten pretty good at googling. A natural talent.

Along with warm weather, the U.S. tour was coming to a close. We were on our second to last show in Washington D.C. before doing the last hometown show in Ohio. I tried, unsuccessfully, to hide how excited I was to meet the Josephs and more importantly, the Duns in a few days. I hadn't met any of Josh's family, or, I guess my family now, too. I only talked to Mrs.Dun on the phone for about five minutes on two separate occasions, and I'd only gotten to talk to Ashley once. I got to talk to her for a little longer, and she asked me a lot about how annoying her brother was as a dad and if he ever worried too much that I should call her and get her to calm him down. I really liked Ashley, from what I had heard of her.

It took every inch of me not to constantly ask about them, I already did that enough with Tyler. When neither of us could sleep, particularly after what happened with Linus, I would ask Tyler what it was like when he was a kid. How school was for him, what his siblings were like, if they had breakfast together as a family. Just small things that most people would consider bland and boring. Tyler didn't tease me for it, though. He'd just tell me about how his brother would pick on him, or how his dad sometimes barbecued, or how his basketball team won the championships his junior year.

I patiently bit my tongue as Josh and I walked through Washington D.C, which definitely lived up to the expectations. Every once in a while we'd come across someone busking and maybe dance along to it. One of us would always give them loose change at the very least. We talked back and forth about stupid, hypothetical questions. For instance, what object would you be if you could shape-shift? (Josh chose a backpack if you were wondering).

Eventually we found ourselves on a street filled with stores back to back, some chain retailers and some local. The street was pretty crowded, but not so much so that it was suffocating. Happy music (mostly Christmas related) played overhead through speakers hung along the sidewalk.

As 'All I Want For Christmas is You' faded out into 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,' memories flooded into my brain faster than I could stop them.

I shivered and pulled my knees to my chest, trying in vain to keep warm in the harsh weather. Snowflakes floated softly like feathers down to the ground, onto my hair, onto my arms, next to me on a park bench... it was beautiful, really. I watched as happy couples with intertwined fingers and families laughing among each other passed by. They were a good distraction from the sharp pain of frozen cheeks.

"Lynn?" someone said softly, barely a whisper. I heard it, but my only response was continuing to shiver and stare blankly out into the street.

"Lynn," the voice beckoned again, louder and more worried this time. "Lynn what happened?"

I closed my eyes for a second, "Nothing happened, Daniel. Go back inside. It's cold."

"I know," he replied sitting next to me and throwing a warm blanket over my shoulders. He looked over at me with deep, brown eyes. His hair was disheveled and he was still in his pajamas. He smiled sadly, "That's why I came out here to get you out of the weather."

I hugged the blanket tighter to me, closing my shoulders and legs in on myself, as if squeezing just a little tighter could reduce me to nothing. "I don't want to go back in there."