oneshots 🧷 joshler

i'm listening

part two of listen, thank fetus_motionless ig man

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two boys lay in there respective beds, both eyes sad, wanting, desperate.

a whole state away they both sat from each other, deciding that after the divorce, it was time to quite literally move on and move away. only one stayed in the original town.

the one that had moved, the one who was more heartbroken, moved to the town where he'd once lived, where he originally met the boy he missed. he tried to push that out of his head, but it was inevitable whenever he saw the duck pond or the busy supermarket on a tuesday, waltzing down aisle four.

he didn't waltz down it, now. he more sulked.

the two had known that they had made a mistake. tearing the puzzle they had built in half wasn't going to solve it, but it was too late.

and even though they both knew the other's phone number by heart, they didn't call, even though the other was just waiting and waiting for the ringing of the telephone from their lover.

friends said to move on, even though they had noticed that their moods had drastically decreased, sometimes not even getting out of bed and crying, tears splashing into the shitty kids cereal they bought because it was their favorite and they were too tired to make anything else.

the only ones who knew how to fix this were the two boys, and they wanted to, but they didn't know how.

that's when the one boy, the one who had moved the entire state away, decided to take a drive. just something he did to help him sleep.

he got up, taking his phone and car keys as he worked himself into a pair of pajama pants and a jacket.

he walked glumly out to his car, getting in and sitting there for a moment before starting the engine and backing out of the parking lot.

and he drove.

past the supermarket, past the pond, out of the town, heading south.

where he was going? he didn't know. if he got lost, oh well, even though the turns and the roads looked familiar.

he turned on the radio, listening to the soft music come through the speakers as he drove down the barren highway.

the other one got up, ambling to the kitchen and wondering if he should go to the basement to retrieve memories.

meanwhile, he drove miles and miles away from the comfort of his own bed, not tired in the slightest. an hour passed, and his lover sat down to watch the late late show with a mug of coffee.

he stopped at a gas station once, to refill and get coffee for himself, even though he didn't need it. the cashier was, at the least, concerned about the well-being of the man who just showed up, but then again, he always was for people with dark circles under their eyes who appeared between the hours of one and three am.

then he got back in his car and continued to drive.

another hour passed, and then half of one, and before he knew what he was doing, he realized where he was.

after parking in the quiet avenue, he grabbed his phone and car keys, shoving them in his pocket as he started to walk up the block, knowing every step even in the dark.

his lover flipped absentmindedly through the tv channels, just starting to fall asleep on the couch when there was a knock at his door. just a quiet one, and he wouldn't have answered it, because who knows what would be out there at four in the morning? but he got up anyway and peaked out the little hole to see who it was.

there josh stood, his face wet with tears.

tyler almost didn't open the door, but his heart was beating so fast, and he did it anyway, looking at him for a second before collapsing into his arms.

"i'm sorry," josh whispered, hugging him tightly. "i should've listened to myself."

tyler didn't say anything, just letting the tears fall down his face as he felt the warmth of josh surrounding him.

all the memories flooded back to him, how much good outweighed the bad, how much happiness they really had, and he finally understood that it was okay to fall in and out of love with a person and them still be your soulmate.

he took josh's face and carefully kissed him, and he really did miss this feeling.

"i'm so sorry," tyler finally said, his voice barely above a whisper.

josh just shook his head, wiping his tears and hugging him again.

there is joy in the little things that they didn't celebrate enough, memories that were thrown away that would float back and create pools of regret for both of them. they had found who they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with, even if they did fight from time to time.

tyler took josh inside, pulling the door closed on the bad thoughts. it was plain happiness now, for them, forever.