AGALMATOPHILIA

_-:39:-_

The man, once rock solid, without emotion, without love, can only stare at the hard wood floors under his feet now, with a somber, sad expression, so bitter and heartless even the aura around him becomes glacial, mistreated so badly there would be nothing to sooth such sour hatred.

It was almost as if he had felt something retelling the tale of how his relationship came to be, almost as if he had felt love remembering the journey he had taken to be where he was.
With Tyler by his side, since he had involuntarily arrived, the coldness that lingered upon his skin had begun to melt through the warming of his heart.

Those big soft eyes Tyler had, he had started to take to him, but his own eyes would always remain glazed.

But when those empty and heartless eyes eventually look up, they lock upon another set that brim and spill with hot salty fear, and compassion.
They weren't the big, spring breeze comforting eyes Josh had grown to adore.

Josh, heartless Josh, turns to face the boy to his left, who happened to be curled in on himself with chin tucked between knees, clothing temporarily stained with clear paint splatter droplets all over his chest.

Neither speak anymore, Josh isn't sure if Tyler's tears are from terror, sentiment or happiness, but any one of those didn't budge a nerve within him, he was trying not to care.

"I haven't loved in a long time," the first to break the silence between the pair, is Josh, with voice icy, distant, he doesn't look to Tyler, but he knows Tyler had been staring at him the entire time.

"I think it's from the way I grew up, we both, Brendon and I, our childhoods..." he trails off and pauses finally, two hands coming up to cradle his head.

He wants to cry too.

"We're very alike, in so many ways, I think that's why I stay, why he stays, we don't know anything else,"

"Brendon loves you," the second breaks his silence finally, but he doesn't look at Josh anymore. "That's why he stays,"

Instead he becomes infatuated with a thread bursting from the middle of the bedspread, talking as if it were only him and the thread in the room.

Tyler can feel Josh's gaze on him, looking him over, searching for something smart to say, but he has nothing.

With enough courage, Tyler finally looks to Josh, examining him for a moment, his poor posture with rolled forward shoulders, head low and supported between two shaking hands, he feels sorry, he does, and for a moment, everything Josh had done to him evaporates.

Tyler had forgotten, truly, that Josh was a human too. Josh wasn't a monster, he hadn't been born that way, Brendon wasn't a monster either, it had just taken Josh longer to open up, to show he was human;

And, so, as if to apologise, Tyler scoots up onto his knees, Josh paying no attention, until his two skinny little arms gingerly engulf Josh's shoulders, Tyler's face awkwardly burrows into his neck.

With a soft exhale that sends a winter chilled breeze down the front of Josh's shirt, Tyler squeezes him firmly, and sighs once again.

"Why... are you..." Josh is confused.

There's no words in his exquisite vocabulary that could describe the whirlwind of emotions that genuinely terrified him at that moment, only;

Confused.

Tyler should be afraid, Tyler should back away, why was he hugging, okay with touching, why did nothing seem to bother Tyler when everything bothered Josh?

Tyler must be confused too, he thinks, Tyler would definitely be confused, he corrects.

Finally, Tyler pulls away, keeping his eyes to the bedspread once again.

"Why do you hurt Brendon?" It's an airy, barely audible query, Josh leans away from him, taken aback by the abrupt question.

He doesn't know an answer, he never expected the question. He doesn't think about hurting Brendon, was he really hurting him?

"I don't know, I hurt a lot of people-"

"But why Brendon?" Tyler pleads, now peering through Josh's own eyes, he keeps them locked together, he's begging.
"Out of everyone, everyone who's deserved it, Phoenix, Brendon's dad, out of every single person who truly did him wrong, why are you the one who hurts him most?"

Josh is silent.

"You helped him, you took away that sadness, you gave him a life that was better than that, and yet he still hurts, and it's your fault,"

The dollmaker hangs his head. He's guilty, and he has nothing to say.

"I'd think someone who can run their mouth as easily as you would have a comeback for me," Tyler almost scolds.

"You're right," Josh sighs with defeat, pinching his eyes at the inner corner between thumb and forefinger tips.
"You're absolutely right,"

Tyler doesn't reply this time, he closes his mouth, he expected a fight, an insult or a threat, he receives nothing.

"What do I do Tyler?" It's Josh's turn to beg, leaning forward towards the boy, it's not intimidating anymore, it's a sense of helplessness.

"Stop hitting him," Tyler spits out, he's standing his ground.

"But how Tyler? Help me, please. Brendon deserves more than I give,"

"You could let him go," Tyler flinches as a hand comes up, he expects a slap, a punch, but Josh only grabs each of his shoulders and pulls him forward, both fall to the bed with Josh tightly, securely holding him.

"I don't know how," he whispers back, Tyler can't lift his head, it's held in place against Josh's chest.

"You have to move on, and let Brendon move on, you've got to let go of the past,"

Josh sighs, he's staring at the ceiling. He's got nothing else to fight with.

Carefully, caring and gentle, he lifts Tyler's face.

"Help me move on,"

Tyler shrugs.

"I don't know how,"

Josh pulls him up closer.

"I've never been with anyone else since Brendon, he's not exactly the most loyal yet I would never treat him the same," he taps a finger upon the back of Tyler's neck, shivers shoot through his skin.

"What... what are you saying?"

"Well, you seem to like a little fun, I gotta move on, why don't we break the tension, and you let me fuck you until you can't walk?" Spoken with such a carefree, assured voice, Tyler thinks for a moment.

He had been over due for a play date with one of his many boy friends, Josh wasn't too scary, Tyler would tell a lie if he said he hadn't already thought about Josh sexually, but Brendon...

"Josh," he begins, Josh listens intently.
"I'll do this for you, but you gotta promise me one thing, otherwise it doesn't happen,"

Excitement bubbles up to the surface, Josh's eyes sparkle.

"Anything Tyler, anything at all I need this,"

"You can never hit Brendon again, because if you do," he sits up, pushes Josh down and pins him there, making sure to stare him dead in the face.

"I will kill you,"