wonderstruck// Tyler Joseph

thirty five | my thoughts will echo your name

Tyler held my hand as I walked alongside him through the woods, just beyond the garden at the palace. He said that there was a treehouse back here that was built for him and his siblings to play in when they were younger. I was expecting something huge, a treehouse that was bigger than my apartment. But when we finally arrived, it looked just like a normal sized tree house that you'd see in an average person's backyard.

I followed behind Tyler as he climbed the ladder, leading me inside. Once we were in, he closed the little trapdoor and sat against the wooden wall next to me. There were drawings and toys scattered around, but it wasn't messy.

Tyler reached forward and picked up a piece of paper that was on the floor. It was a picture colored in crayon of a stick figure person playing basketball.

"I used to wanna be a basketball player when I was little," Tyler explained, smiling at the picture. "Don't you think this is a fantastic drawing?"

"It's perfect," I responded sarcastically.

"I doubt you could do any better. Even my five year old self could beat you in a drawing contest," he stated with a smirk.

"Maybe. Do you challenge me to a contest?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure," he replied. He grabbed a blank piece of paper from a pile on the floor, and a pencil laying beside it. "Draw me. I'll be the judge of it."

I did as he said, taking the pencil from his hand and setting the piece of paper down in front of me. I decided that I would actually try, and not just draw terribly to let Tyler win this little contest he had started. I had a lot of experience with art, though. It was basically my job back at home. And I had never drawn Tyler before, so I figured that I might as well make my portrait of him look nice.

I continuously looked up at him and back down at my paper to make sure I was getting each of his features right. He watched intently as I shaded the different parts of his face, his mouth slightly hanging open.

"That's amazing," he said with wide eyes. "How'd you do that?"

"I don't know? Practice?"

"I guess you win," he said, taking the paper from me and shrugging his shoulders.

"As I should."

"No need to be sassy." I found that funny, being that he tended to be sassy nearly every second of the day, but I brushed it off. He eventually nuzzled his head into the crook of my neck, snuggling into my side as we basked in the silence. It was nighttime by now, and we could only hear the distant sound of crickets outside.

He pressed faint kisses to my skin, tickling me just a bit. I contemplated pushing him away playfully, but I decided against it because I knew that he was just trying to be sweet. So I let him continue, his lips traveling from my neck up to my jaw. When he finally got near my lips, he probably realized that he'd have to lean over me to actually kiss me. So that was what did, holding my face with one of his hands as he did so.

Eventually he pulled away, but still left his lips hovering only centimeters away from mine. His eyes were closed, and he was so close that I could hear his quiet breaths.

"Ty?" I called just above a whisper. I didn't know what was going through his mind at that moment. I just wanted to make sure that he was alright. He opened his eyes, meeting my concerned stare. A smile took over his face, his cheeks rising and that sunshiny aura radiating off of him as it always seemed to do whenever he was happy.

Without warning, he put his lips on mine again. My face broke out into a smile as I kissed him, and I couldn't help but giggle- even when his mouth was on mine. One second he was sitting still with his eyes closed, and the next he was holding my waist and kissing me again. I truly did wonder what went on in that pretty little mind of his.

"Ty!" I tried to exclaim between kisses, still attempting to hold in my laughter but failing miserably.

"What?" He asked with rosy cheeks and a sheepish smile. "Why are you laughing at me?"

"No! I'm not laughing at you, I just- I wasn't expecting that, is all."

"So can we keep going?" He asked. For some reason, the way he worded the question frightened me. My mind automatically assumed he was implying something else, but I should've known better. I let my anxiety get the best of me, so I couldn't refrain from asking about it, regardless of how stupid I was going to look.

"Keep going? What do you mean by that?"

He furrowed his eyebrows, probably confused as to why I was questioning him. Then the realization must've hit him, because his eyes softened and he shook his head. "No no no no- I just meant can I keep kissing you, that's all," he replied hastily. "Did you think that I meant something else?" I cringed in embarrassment. Obviously he didn't mean it any other way. I was so stupid.

"Yes..." I replied hesitantly. I chuckled to myself, laughing at the fact that I had managed to make things awkward in only a matter of seconds.

"Are you alright?" Tyler asked. He probably thought I was going crazy at this point.

"I'm fine. I'm just an idiot," I responded.

"No you're not. You just took what I said the wrong way and asked about it," he explained, putting a hand on my shoulder comfortingly. He smiled as he noticed that I was still wearing a bashful expression. "Stop! Don't be embarrassed. I understand."

"Do me a favor and forget this ever happened."

He rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand, closing his eyes as he did so. "There. It's been erased from my mind."

I smiled, staring at the boy in front of me. I loved him so much. Even though I managed to make a fool of myself time and time again, he had never been fazed by it. Instead, he laughed with me and assured me that I was fine. I wasn't even sure why I was so embarrassed just before.

I knew I didn't need to be afraid to be myself around him. We were so comfortable with each other, it felt as if I had known him for forever, rather than just over half a year. It was so easy to talk to him about the most outlandish things, and I was thankful for that. We had the same amount of weirdness, so our conversations were always interesting.

"So... do you care if I kiss you again?" He asked with an innocent smile.

Instead of answering, I leaned forward and connected our lips. Kissing him while knowing he was going to be living just down the block from me somehow made me feel more ecstatic. Probably because now I knew that he'd have what he'd always wanted, and on top of that he was so very close to my home. We could hang out all of the time, and thinking about it just made me happy.

Crickets chirped and the wind softly swayed the tree branches as I held onto Tyler's face, kissing him as if I had never tasted his lips before. I could hear the occasional creak from the wood of the treehouse, and the quick breaths we would take in between each kiss.

At some point we stopped because we were both growing a bit too tired. I could feel my eyes closing, but Tyler shook my shoulders and said we needed to get back inside. I didn't want to get up at first, but then I thought of how comfortable the palace beds were, and decided I would sleep much better there rather than in a treehouse.

Tyler held my hand as we walked together, leading me through the many halls of the palace. When we finally arrived at his room, we got ready for bed and situated ourselves under the covers.

I fell asleep with Tyler's arms wrapped around me and his head squished against my shoulder. We would be going home soon, and he would finally be living in his new apartment. I was so excited for him.

a/n: only a few more chapters after this!! i'm gonna make them kinda short though