cant take it on my own (joshler)

introduction, part 3

"I brought you some chips, Joshua. Your favorite kind." He laughs a little before tossing the bag to Josh.

It lands just out of his area of movement.

His chains pull taught at he reaches for the bag, stomach growling.

He steps forward and grabs Josh's face, running his fingers along Josh's jawline. "I don't like this on you."

He reaches into a pocket and pulls out a key, first unlocking the chains around Josh's ankles. "Don't run, or you'll regret it." He growls, before unlocking the ones around Josh's wrists and hauling him to his feet.

Josh has never wanted to sprint more in his life.

But he refrains, and instead allows himself to be dragged up the stairs by his tight grip on his arm.

He's shoved into a bathroom by the basement stairs. He bends down and searches through a cabinet, and Josh takes that time to run.

But he's weak with hunger and thirst, and isn't as fast as he'd like to be.

He hears him yell as he reaches the front door.

Josh bolts out onto the street and runs as fast as he can, hoping that his bare feet don't catch on anything to send him falling to the ground.

But he is not faster than him.

Josh hears footsteps pounding up behind him and he screams as a hand closes around his arm. He's flung to the ground and he feels his skin scrape.

"Fucking hell, I told you not to run!" Josh is hauled back to his feet and dragged to the house. He kicks and screams. He just laughs.

"There's no one around to hear you, Joshua. You're mine."

"Josh?"

Josh snaps his attention to Tyler almost fearfully, eyes growing wide. Had he missed something important? Was he going to be punished?

"You were breathing weird. Are you okay?"

Josh looks down at the empty bag of chips.

"I gotta warn you about something." Tyler's hand gently lands on Josh's forearm, and he flinches.

Tyler doesn't remove his hand, and instead begins to rub soft circles with his thumb. "So, uh, when you got captured, it was a pretty big deal. Like, it was all over the news, and people were trying to identify who took you, and stuff like that. Once the word gets out that you've been found, there will probably be a lot of news people that will want to talk to you."

Josh nods to show that he understands.

"Do you want to go back to your apartment?"

Josh looks up at a clock on the wall. It's 5:07. Work is still open, and unless the shifts have changed, Chris is there.

He debates on whether he wants to go home and shower first, or go straight there.

Josh nods in response to Tyler's question, and then traces 'work' on the table with his index finger.

"Stop by your apartment first?"

Josh nods.

"Okay. Come on." Tyler stands up and holds his hand out for Josh to take.

Josh does without hesitation and stands up.

Tyler leads Josh through the hallways back outside to his car. This time, Josh sits in the passenger seat.

He stares out the window for the entire drive, watching the streets fly by.

He'd dreamed of this for months.

When they reach his apartment, Josh realizes he doesn't have his key. He communicates this to Tyler with a panicked look.

Tyler must pick up on what he's trying to say without words. "I'll talk to whoever's there."

Josh nods, and then they get out of the car.

Walking into the building feels very decidedly like home, and Josh relaxes. He doesn't take Tyler's hand as he talks to someone.

A wide-eyed look is shot Josh's way, and then a key is handed over to Tyler.

It takes only one look from Tyler for Josh to run up three floors worth of stairs and skids to a stop in front of his apartment door.

Tyler follows, amused.

Tyler hands the key to Josh and Josh unlocks his apartment and practically bounces inside.

Everything is exactly as he left it with maybe a coating of dust, but Josh doesn't care. He's home, finally finally home. He's so happy he could explode.

"You gonna take a shower?" Tyler asks, shutting the apartment door.

Josh nods, the beginnings of a smile tugging at his mouth.

"I'll be waiting."

Josh bounces off to his bathroom, freezes for maybe a minute after he enters, and then continues.

After a shower that was probably longer than he intended (he loved the feeling of water flowing over him, and might've washed and rewashed his hair too many time), Josh is dressed in his own clothes and clean.

He walks out into the living room and nods to Tyler.

Tyler stands up and smiles at Josh, and Josh thinks that that's the first time he's seen Tyler really smile.

He likes it very much.

Josh nearly runs back down the stairs, but is stopped by a sudden fear of that he shouldn't be running away. It takes a hand on his upper arm and Tyler steering him down the stairs for Josh to unfreeze and snap back into the moment.

Tyler lets go of Josh as soon as they're out of the building, and Josh feels like he's able to breathe again.

It's not a long drive to the music store where Josh works. He doesn't own a car, so he walks to work every day, and it's not too long of a walk.

It's 5:53 when Tyler parks in front of the music store.

Josh leaps out of the car and nearly runs inside.

A bell rings as the door opens, and Josh walks up to the register.

"Hi, how can I..." Chris's words die in his throat as he takes in Josh's appearance. "Josh?!"