Keeper and Protector (Joshler) ✔️

49

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"You show me how to see that nothing is whole and nothing is broken."

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(A/N: This chapter has NSFW content)

One o'clock in the morning and with no sleep in sight, Tyler regretted taking a nap on the way here. Ever since Dema, he flip-flopped between either sleeping too much or staying up for hours on end with a million thoughts inside of his head.

Turning over onto his side, he smiled a little when he saw Josh. His Protector had fallen asleep two hours earlier after some much-needed pillow talk.

Ever since then, Tyler had done every "quiet" thing that he could think of -- staring at the ceiling, daydreamimg, reading old poetry in his notebook, looking up random stuff on Google -- and he still wasn't sleepy.

In the back of his mind, though, he knew the longer he spent laying there with nothing but silence to keep him company, the more vulnerable he was to intrusive thoughts.

And, in his eyes, there'd be nothing worse than waking up Josh due to a breakdown that could have been avoided.

Sighing, Tyler sat up before maneuvering himself out of the bed. Maybe stretching my legs would do me some good. After he made sure Josh was still asleep, he straightened out his kimono and opened the bedroom door to the living room.

Walking into the kitchenette area, he found a plastic cup and turned the sink on to a slight stream, not wanting to wake anyone up with the sound of the faucet running.

Just as he finished drinking his water, a noise pricked Tyler's ears, making him freeze.

"Deeper, Fynn, deeper..."

Flashbacks of the day Tyler had overheard Josh masturbating came back to his mind, except this time... it wasn't Josh and there definitely wasn't any masturbation going on.

He quickly threw his cup in the trash before tip-toeing back to his room. Once he made it back in and closed the door, one half of his body's blood volume was in his face while the other half had gone... elsewhere.

Who could possibly want to be rolling around in bed with someone in the middle of the night?

Tyler groaned and buried his face inside of his hands.

"Baby?"

His heart nearly stopped when he heard his Protector's voice. Peeking out through his fingers, he saw Josh sitting up in bed, rubbing one eye while staring at him with the other.

Slowly taking his hands away, Tyler wished for lightning to strike him down right there so he could avoid the question of why he was standing in front of the bedroom door at 1:00AM with a slight boner. "Hi, Josh," he said softly. "Did I wake you? I'm sorry."

"No, I rolled over and didn't feel you next to me." Josh reached over to the bedside table and turned on the lamp. "But... are you okay? Your face is beet red."

He tried to avoid the question. "I couldn't sleep so I went to get some water."

"Well, did you run a marathon afterwards?"

Tyler could tell from the look on Josh's face that he was thoroughly amused by whatever was going on. "Hey, aren't I supposed to be the sassy one?"

"It depends." Josh smiled before motioning for him to come get in the bed. "Well, I'm awake now, so you might as well tell me what's got you all flustered."

Tyler walked back over to the bed and climbed in next to Josh, being careful to avoid any position that would make his "problem" worse. "Oh, you know, just another sleepless night for your Keeper."