Glowing Eyes || Adopted by Josh Dun

valentine's day

It had been a week since the news had broke, and the situation had mostly calmed down. Josh was still wary of me going around LA by myself, knowing that I could get stopped on the street for something about it. He didn't want me to have to talk to press by myself, and as much as I agreed with him, I was miserable not being able to wander like always. I had been away from the streets I called home for months, and now that I was home I was taunted by them.

But everything had calmed down, because something else was on everyone's mind - Valentine's Day. I watched out the window as shop-owners filled their windows with little heart decorations and pink and red garland. I was finally able to download my social media again, and my feed was filled with pictures and tweets about the day. Aris posted a few photos with her new boyfriend of four months (the record so far). Daniel and Dael's tweets were mostly about how they were excited about the post-Valentine's discount candy. I fell into Daniel and Dael's viewpoint.

I never really planned on doing anything for the holiday. In fact, Josh and I talked about sitting inside and watching movies like 16 Candles while eating Chinese takeout (which was what we had been doing most of the week, anyways). But I noticed Josh growing more grave as he came home, day by day. His smile seemed more for me than for him.

I finally asked him, as we are omelets I made for dinner, "Josh, what's wrong?"

"Hm?" his eyes went wide and he looked up from his plate, across the table at me. "What do you mean?"

"You've been really... out of it," I frowned. "What's up?" I crossed my legs underneath me as I sat on the kitchen chair.

He shrugged, "Not a big deal or anything, just kind of-" he shook his head. "Out of it I guess."

"Josh, are you sad about Valentine's Day?" I blurted.

Josh's eyes went wide, "What? No! I-" He stared guiltily back at me raised eyebrow, clearly not believe his objections. He sighed, his fork dropping back to his plate, "I guess, yeah."

I just looked at him, waiting for him to talk. Sure enough, the words came.

"I was just thinking about Tyler and Jenna," he sighed. "He has such an amazing wife, and I'm happy for him, don't get me wrong. I just - I guess I'm just kind of bummed that I can't find he same thing. That I'm just going to be sitting and watching TV while... You get it."

"Then let's not sit and watch TV," I offered.

"What do you mean?"

"Let's go do something!" I smiled. "The whole situation thing has calmed down, I can go out into the city as long as you're there, right?"

I saw Josh hesitate, and I hurriedly added, "Please? Come on, it'll be fun! We haven't gotten out all week!"

Josh laughed lightly at my eagerness. "Okay, okay."

•••••••

The day was slightly colder, and you could see the signs of fall in the few tinted trees lining the sidewalks.

"Where are we again?" Josh asked with a laugh.

I laughed, too. "I don't know the street name - never have really cared about them - but I like to call this place hidden-gem boulevard."

"Sounds interesting," Josh smiled, his eyes wrinkling. He was wearing a grey hoodie, and I was wearing my army-green one.

"It is," I smiled, walking next to him and opening up a store door beside us. The window had a neon sign reading 'Y-Que' and mountains of knick-knacks leaning against it. Josh walked in behind me, a bell ringing as he shut it back.