Mens Cruentatus (Joshler)

Novem

Josh has been fighting the others from taking over the light these past few days. He's been able to keep himself in check, and although it's been hard, it has also been manageable. Every time he begins to weaken he has to remind himself of what might happen to Tyler if he let any of the others take over for longer than necessary. One thing that helps him stay strong is when he can actually be with Tyler, and see the damage he's caused and try to put the younger man back to one piece while he can. He knows that his time is running out, but he's not going to give up until he has to, in the meantime he's going to try and teach Tyler everything he needs to know about the others, and how he can remain safe if he's in a risky situation.

It's early in the morning now, and Josh paced his kitchen, a plate of food for Tyler along with a glass of water sitting on the counter beside him while he tried to calm himself down. This morning has been a hard one. Since he's woken up all of the others have tried to fight for the light again, so he's been struggling to stay in check. After pacing for awhile longer, his breathing has calmed down he gently takes the food and water into his hands carefully, looking down on it and sighing. It's not much, just a slice of buttered bread and an orange, but he doesn't have much more to give. He's avoided leaving the house in case one of the others managed to take over and do something that they would regret, so he didn't have much food in the house at all.

He walked over to the basement door and opened it, he shamed himself for not being able to just let Tyler go now, but he had been searching for Blurryface forever, and finding him may resolve everything. He let out another audible sigh before unlocking the bigger door at the bottom of the stairs, creaking it open and walking inside, shutting and locking the door behind him. He turned on his heels to see the brunette sitting cross-legged on the bed, the magazine that he had brought down for him open in his lap but his brown eyes focused on him, the intruder.

They stared at each other for a little longer before Tyler moved the magazine from his lap to beside him on the mattress. He didn't look scared, but he didn't look happy either, which was completely understandable. Tyler thought that he was lucky that Josh was still in the light and he was no longer chained to the bed, but he knew that would change as soon as his wrists healed.

"Good morning," Josh said gently, walking over to the bed slowly and handing over the plate and glass to the brunette who placed the plate in his lap and held onto the glass with a shaky hand. He gave a sad yet grateful smile to Josh, before starting to dig in silently.

As the older man sits in the chair beside the bed, he allows guilt to flood into his system as he watches as Tyler eats faster than he'd ever seen anyone eat, even chugging the water he was given. He watches as the brunette finishes eating the bread, struggling to peel his orange. He claws at it for awhile and then kind of just gives up, so Josh walks back over to him and gently places a hand on his shoulder, causing the brunette to look up at him with droopy eyes. Josh slowly extends his other arm to grab the orange, beginning to peel it while Tyler watches with a glint of gratefulness in his eyes. Josh doesn't understand how he could feel grateful for any of this at all. But still, after all, he's been put through, Tyler thanks him excitedly and begins to peel away the slivers of the orange and eat them happily.

"I'm sorry it's not much," Josh says, rubbing his hands together guiltily and sitting back down in the foldable chair.

Tyler has a stream of juice from the orange running down the sides of his mouth and down his chin when he turns his head to look at Josh.

"It's fine," Tyler says with his mouth full, taking a second to swallow his food and wipe his mouth before continuing, "At least it's something."

Josh nodded slowly and silently causing Tyler to tilt his head curiously.