song mentioned: taken by sleep; tyler joseph
things were heavy the next day. the sun had hidden behind the clouds, and tyler's pen felt more like a knife as he jabbed lyrics into existence.
the scale went up and tyler's head hung low. failurefailurefailurefailure -
he wrote another song for josh and told himself he was happy. he decided he had to be, for josh. one of them had to be okay.
everything was a sticky kind of warm, and the sleeves of his shirt stuck to his wrists uncomfortably. josh was back to wearing tank tops and he let tyler draw a constellation of exploding suns up and down his arm.
tyler couldn't bring himself to speak more than necessary that day, but josh didn't need him too. they sat in silence, just breathing.
inhale. exhale.
nothing to it.
tyler drew over josh's bruises and scars. ("what do you normally cover them with?" "just makeup. concealer." "can - can i borrow some? it's - it's getting too hot for long sleeves.")
josh sang under his breath, watching the marker move surely across his skin. it was always easier to breathe around tyler. the clouds passed over the clearing; a king, a crown, a stingray, a flower, a heart. neither spoke. their chests rose and fell in unison. a bird sang and josh asked if he had been using the piano, so tyler played a recording of a song.
i know i want to see your face today / and somebody told me they saw you cry and break down / do you know how hard that is to get around and think about?
josh began to cry, but there was the hint of a smile behind the crystal tears. tyler held him, and the two were simply shadows against the trees, staring up at the clouds as if they held answers for everything that was wrong in the world.
inhale. exhale.