Lockjaw (Joshler)

41. Killer

***Trigger warnings for PTSD, mentions of assault, survivor's guilt, and a description of gore.***

Start the song. It's A Shitty Love Song by Jye.

Tyler wasn't that surprised when he wound up being asked to keep Mia overnight. He didn't complain, and honestly, he loved spending extra time with one of his absolute favourite people in the world, but he spent the entire night lying awake, worrying about Josh.

His sister was unsurprisingly a bit shocked when he left his house at the same time she did after she'd picked Mia up. She stood frozen with her daughter half buckled into a car seat while she watched Tyler lock his front door.

"Where are you going? And why are you smiling?" She asked, not seeming to realize that the question indirectly implied that he should still be lying in his bedroom floor crying at this stage of his breakup.

Tyler shrugged as he walked over to his own car. "Should I not be smiling?" He challenged amusedly, mostly to buy himself time to think of somewhere he could say he was going that wasn't "to the prison to visit my friend who committed arson and manslaughter but I personally think is ready to be released."

Maddy smiled slightly. "Absolutely not. You're never allowed to smile again. That's banned."

"Noted," Tyler replied with a wide smile as he unlocked his car and climbed inside. "Thanks for letting me have a sleepover with Mia!"

"Thanks for letting her sleep over!" Maddy replied, already having forgotten her previous question for her brother.

"Anytime!" Tyler replied, feeling a great deal of relief when he closed his car door and started the vehicle.

He'd only narrowly avoided having to give an explanation, but he was very glad he'd done it. He really needed to either decide on an alibi for the days he did this or decide if he wanted to be honest about it. Somehow, he couldn't see his family of lawyers being very supportive of him befriending an inmate. Thankfully, he didn't have to decide in this moment. Maybe Josh could help him decide what he should do. Tyler didn't really know.

All Tyler knew was that it was very difficult to not speed on his way to the prison. His concern about Josh's mental state remained uncomfortably high all throughout passing through security, but Tyler felt a million times better when he was brought into the visiting room and heard the opposite door buzz.

The guard that brought Josh in was an old man who definitely didn't look capable of handling any level of aggression an inmate might direct at him, which made Tyler wonder if that was why he had been assigned to spend time with Josh today. Josh wasn't really a threat. He wasn't a violent guy.

Josh was quiet as he was uncuffed, not seeming as comfortable with this guard as he had with the other ones Tyler had seen with him. It wasn't that he acted like he was afraid of the guard, it was just that he watched the guard more closely, like he didn't quite trust him. He smiled at Tyler though, and Tyler beamed back easily.

"Dude, you look tired," Josh told him as his cuffs were removed. "How many episodes of that pig show did you have to sit through last night?"

Tyler laughed. "First of all, her name is Peppa," he insisted.

Josh grinned as he sat down. "Any relation to Salt?" He asked amusedly.

"Wow, was that an eighties hip hop reference from Mr. I Don't Know Anything About Music?" Tyler asked with a smirk.

"I know about music. I just don't know lyrics," Josh corrected.

"Ah. That's right," Tyler replied, making Josh grin. Although Tyler didn't mention it aloud, this was the first day he'd seen Josh genuinely smile without forcing himself to shove his emotions down before they were visible. He was getting more comfortable with Tyler. "And for the record, I let Mia watch three episodes yesterday. Then my sister asked if she could leave Mia with me for the night, and she was too excited about sleeping at my house to actually sleep, so I got maybe three hours of sleep last night."