Tyrus One Shots

Patience

                              By: Seraph_Novak
TJ found him on the swings. He'd naturally gravitated towards the playground when Cyrus had stopped answering his phone; it was the place they both went to when they were feeling down.

"You okay, Underdog?"

Cyrus flinched at the interruption, twisting in his swing to look back at TJ. He wasn't even singing the song, which was worrying.

"Oh. Hey, TJ." The younger boy gave him a watery smile. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"You sure? You don't seem okay."

"It's just the usual stuff."

"Wanna talk about it?"

Cyrus waved at the second swing in invitation. "Sure."

TJ took a seat and started to swing, making sure not to go too high as he waited for Cyrus to open up.

After a few minutes of silent swinging, Cyrus started to rant. He told TJ about his terrible day, and how the universe had been out to get him since the moment he'd woken up. At first, he'd overslept; and then the milk had been sour; and then his favourite teacher had been off sick, and the substitute was awful; and then he'd failed his pop quiz; and then he'd tripped over in the cafeteria; and then he'd spilt water on his pants in the worst possible place...

TJ listened patiently, an amused little smile touching his lips. "Wow. That's a lot of bad luck."

"Tell me about it," Cyrus groaned. "And then, to top it all off, I saw Andi and Jonah kissing in the corridor. I mean, I know my crush on him is gone, but on top of everything else that's happened today, it made me feel pretty sad."

TJ frowned, letting the words sink in. He was sure he must've misheard him. "Um, Cyrus?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you just say you had a crush on Jonah?"

Within seconds, all of the colour had drained from Cyrus' face. "What? No, I didn't. Why would I say that?"

"You said your crush on him is gone... Did you mean 'her'? Did you used to like Andi or something?"

Cyrus snorted. "Um, no."

"Then what were you talking about?"

"I, uh... Can we please just pretend I didn't say anything?"

TJ hesitated. A part of him was eager to know the truth; if Cyrus was really gay, or at least into boys, then maybe he had a chance with him after all. Up until this point, he'd thought the idea of Cyrus liking him back was hopeless. But a larger part of him didn't want to push his friend into coming out too soon, before he was really ready.

"Okay," he said, trying his best to look casual. "If you don't wanna talk about it, we don't have to. You can tell me when you're ready, Underdog."

Cyrus visibly relaxed. "Thanks, TJ."

They continued to swing in silence for a while, each of them lost in private thoughts as the day slowly melted into night. TJ waited for the park to completely empty before reaching between them and grabbing Cyrus' hand.

"Just so you know," he said, his blush hidden in the fading light, "this doesn't change anything. You're still the same person, alright?"

Cyrus squeezed his hand. "You have no idea how much that means to me."

TJ smiled at the side of his face, his thumb sweeping over Cyrus' knuckles soothingly. If Cyrus wasn't prepared to tell him the truth just yet, he'd wait until he was ready.

For Cyrus, he'd wait a lifetime.