Adore // Oneshots

Northern Downpour (Joshler)

CATEGORY: Fluff, angst, songfic
FEATURING: popular!Josh and outcast!Tyler (high school AU)
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Mentions of HOSPITALS, SICK RELATIVES, HOMOPHOBIA, and of course, NORTHERN DOWNPOUR! BE WARNED, EASILY TRIGGERED RYDEN FANS!
PROMPT: Josh waits at his bus stop in the rain, and Tyler offers to share his umbrella.
WORD COUNT: Approximately 1,420

If all our life is but a dream
Fantastic posing greed
Then we should feed our jewelry to the sea
For diamonds do appear to be
Just like broken glass to me.

It is raining as the boy leaves the apartment. He mumbles a few curse words at the sight of the storm, but heads down the street anyway. While he does wear a jacket, it's not the type for rain, and so the water just soaks right through. It's not raining hard, but the drops from the downpour are heavy with water. The boy walks along the sidewalks, crossing streets here and there until he reaches the bus stop.

Just my luck that it'd rain today, the boy thinks. The boy's name is Joshua Dun, and he was just visiting his friend Brendon, who is about a year older than Josh, and thus already in college. Brendon was pretty popular in high school, and Josh, being his right-hand man, is now the popular one in Brendon's absence. He already has a clique of popular friends: Pete, Frankie, and Dallon. He doesn't have a girlfriend at the moment, but there is a girl Josh is thinking about asking out; Debby, the girl across from him in history.

As Josh waits at the bus stop, he wishes he had a car. His wet clothes are sticking to his skin, making him uncomfortable. The rain was predicted to spread all over the northern half of the state, but Josh somehow forgot his raincoat. A northern downpour, Josh thinks.

And then she said she can't believe
Genius only comes along
In storms of fabled foreign tongues
Tripping eyes, and flooded lungs
Northern downpour sends its love.

"Would you like to share my umbrella?" says a soft voice. Josh turns his head left towards the sound of the voice. A boy dressed in a dark gray jacket, black t-shirt, skinny jeans, and well-worn combat boots stands a few feet away. He has soft-looking dark brown hair, and the eyes to match.

Hey moon, please forget to fall down,
Hey moon, don't you go down.

Josh recognizes the boy, though he doesn't know his name. He's seen Pete and sometimes Frankie picking on him in the hallways of the high school, he's almost sure. The boy has a bit of a reputation for being dark, in a strange, slightly creepy sort of way. Josh pretends he didn't hear the boy speak.

"Would you like to share my umbrella?" the soft voice repeats, and Josh sighs. "Yes, please." The boy, who's just about Josh's height, steps over to Josh and lets the umbrella cover him. Thankfully, it's large enough to shelter them both.

"You're welcome," the boy says after a moment, though there's no irritation or spite in his voice at Josh's reluctance to thank him.

Sugarcane in the easy morning
Weather-vanes my one and lonely.

"Thank you," Josh finally says. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and opens up Twitter to see what everyone else has been up to. Pete, Dallon, and Frankie are apparently out with some girls. Josh wonders why they didn't invite him.

"You're Josh, right?"

Slightly frustrated, Josh puts the phone in his pocket. He doesn't really want to have a conversation with this boy, but it seems like he's going to have to. "Yeah."

The ink is running toward the page
It's chasing off the days
Look back at both feet
And that winding knee
I missed your skin when you were east
You clicked your heels and wished for me.