Luckily, Rylee and Jordan agreed to have dinner with Josh and Tyler. Granted, Jordan make a joke about Josh being dinner which resulted in a small breakdown and lots of reassurance that it was just a joke, but they agreed.
Josh didn't have any ulterior motives or anything. He really just wanted to get to know Rylee better. She was stuck in his life and he really did want to support Jordan. On the other end of that, he wanted them to get to know Tyler better because he was one of the most important things in Josh's life.
Tyler was on his way when Josh started the food. He knew they didn't need to eat it but they could still enjoy it so it didn't matter. Josh decided on steak since he could make the other three's a... certain way... and although it was expensive, he was attempting to have things go nicely. He didn't make anyone dress up fancy but he wanted things to look classy at least.
He was in the middle of washing vegetables for the salad when he heard his doorbell go off. Drying his hands, he went over and opened the door. He smiled when he saw Tyler. "Hey," he greeted as he moved aside to let him in.
Tyler kissed him gently. "Hey there five star chef."
Josh blushed and rolled his eyes. "Shut up," he smiled.
"You're adorable."
"Stop," Josh shook his head. "Stop flirting with the chef. That's a health code violation."
"How?" Tyler laughed, following Josh back into the kitchen.
"I'll spit in your food if you don't stop," Josh playfully warned.
"Your spit already ends up in my mouth every time we make out."
"I hate you!" Josh laughed.
"Uh huh," Tyler gave him the cutest smile. "You love me."
"Okay. You caught me. I'm guilty."
"Oh do you have a handcuff kink on top of a vampire one?" Tyler teased.
"I will not hesitate to dump you."
"You would never."
Josh glared at his boyfriend because he was right. They both knew it. "Are you just going to sit there or do you want to be my cute little sous chef?"
"Shouldn't the bottom be the sous chef?"
"Yeah that's why you're the sous chef."
"Oh Josh," Tyler gave him a look. "We both know that's you. Remember that night you spent the night—"
Josh let out another laugh. "Stop it!"
Tyler laughed as well and kissed him softly. When he pulled back, he had a goofy little grin on his face. "Now that's a health code violation."
The two were cut off with the doorbell ringing again. Josh was about to go get it when Jordan came walking down the hall. "I'll get it! Hey, Tyler," he spoke to the two before going to the door. He paused turning back at them. "Please don't embarrass me."
"You embarrassed me until this little thing happened. I have 16 years to make up," Josh replied.
"Josh," Jordan warned. The mentioned just innocently smiled.
Jordan turned back to the door and opened it. "Hey," Josh heard him greet.
He watched from the kitchen as he kissed Rylee quickly and carefully before grabbing her hand and leading her inside. "Hi guys," she smiled nervously.
"Hey, Rylee. Nice to see you again," Tyler nodded.
He glanced at Josh, obviously waiting to see what he did. Josh just gave her a warm smile. "Hi, Rylee. Thanks for coming."
"Thanks for inviting me," she replied. Josh could see Jordan give her hand a reassuring squeeze and Josh's smile widened. They did remind him a lot of him and Tyler. It was cute.
"I'm working on dinner now I'll let you guys know when it's done," he told them.
"Thanks," Jordan quickly responded before taking Rylee and leading her to his room.
"Keep the door open!" Josh yelled making Tyler snicker.
"Oh fuck off," Jordan yelled back.
"That's what you get for that one time you walked in on me and Tyler making out!"
"Okay we're even now! Truce!"
Josh laughed and went back to the food, directing Tyler to get him vegetables from the fridge and washing them so he could cut them for the salad.
Tyler let out a gagging noise as soon as he pulled open the vegetable drawer and Josh gave him a worried look. "What?"
"Onion," he grimaced.
Josh let out a chuckle. "Isn't it garlic you can't stand?" He joked.
"Well yeah but it won't like kill us. It's anything that smells too potent because of our super senses. So anything like curry, tuna—"
"Jordan's room. Poor Rylee," Josh pouted playfully.
Tyler laughed and kissed his nose. "Cute pout."
"Thanks," Josh beamed.
The two talked and joked as they went about getting dinner ready. Josh was getting the salad ready and was just going to refrigerate it while he worked on the steak and potatoes (sweet and regular so he didn't have to doom himself). He decided to leave the onion out and waited for Tyler to approve everything else before going to work cutting them.
Josh somehow ended up in his own world and didn't realize he sliced the tip of his finger when he was cutting a carrot. "Fuck!" He dropped the knife.
However, he was more worried when he heard the water turn off and spun around to see Tyler clutching the counter tightly with his eyes closed. "Ty..." Josh tried, holding his finger to his body.
Tyler opened his eyes at Josh and they were red. "One of us needs to leave or I'm gonna hurt you."
"I'm bleeding out! What do I do?"
Suddenly, Josh saw Rylee hurrying down the hall. She grabbed a towel and Josh's arm. "Outside. Now," she ordered as she held the towel to his finger and pulled him out the back door.
Once the door slammed shut behind them, Josh began shivering as Rylee led the both of them around by the trashcan. "The smell of the trash well help mask the smell of the blood," she explained. "Sorry you're cold. Grabbing you a coat wasn't top priority," she added distractedly as she pulled the towel away and dropped it in the snow.
Josh looked at her, surprised. "Wh— why aren't you freaking out?"
Rylee looked up at him and smiled. "Born vampires learn control quicker and have more of it. I've got 16 years of being like this," she laughed, inspecting his finger. It wasn't bad but it was still bleeding. He wouldn't need stitches but it was close to that severity. "Even with Jordan having a surprising amount of control, as soon as we both sensed it I could tell he was struggling to stay in his room. How's Tyler?"
All Josh could do was eye his bleeding finger warily. "He said he was going to hurt me," he replied quietly.
"Yeah, I heard him," she spoke sadly. "He didn't though, right? All good?"
"Yeah."
"That's good. How long has he been one of us?"
"Since May."
"He's doing really good then. It took a lot of willpower for him to even say what was going on let alone not attack you."
Josh gulped.
"Sorry," she smiled sheepishly. "I'm gonna do something, is that okay?"
Josh nodded, not knowing what she was talking about. However, when her fangs popped out he yanked his hand back and his heart rate quickened. "What the hell?"
Rylee didn't even react to that, just grabbing his hand back. "Do you trust me? I know I haven't given you too many reasons to like me, but I need you to trust me."
Josh sighed and nodded again, not seeing any other person who could help at the moment.
Josh watched her close her mouth before heavily licking his finger. He grimaced the sight before he realized it was starting to close up— just like he wrist did the one time he let Tyler feed from him.
Her fangs retracted. "We have venom in our teeth but we also have a healing property we use when we feed so we don't leave anyone bleeding out. It clots the blood and closes the skin. You should be good to go back inside."
Josh smiled at her. "Thanks, you didn't have to do that."
"Yeah I did," she laughed. "I wasn't gonna let anything happen to you," the two began walking back inside when she spoke up again. "How's dinner going?"
"I'm sort of over it," he replied truthfully.
"Wanna order food? I'll help pay for it."
Josh nodded, the smile returning to his face as he crossed his arms to brace the cold. "Yeah. That'd be cool."
The two went inside and Josh saw both Jordan and Tyler waiting for them in the kitchen. "He's all good," Rylee assured. "I healed it."
Before Josh could say anything Tyler was wrapping his arms around him and hugging him tightly. "I'm so sorry," he mumbled into Josh's shoulder. Josh could tell he was about to cry.
Josh saw his brother and Rylee walk off down the hallway as he rubbed Tyler's back. "It's okay," he whispered.
Tyler pulled back and he looked horrified with himself. "I almost hurt you," he whispered as well. "I promised I would never do that."
"Ty, it's okay," Josh tried assuring.
"No! It's not! It's something that shouldn't even be an issue. This is bad, Josh. I'm just gonna end up hurting you. This isn't gonna work."
"Are you— are you breaking up with me?" Josh asked fearfully.
Tyler had his thumb in his mouth, biting his thumbnail anxiously. "I'll do it," he finally spoke, his voice quiet.
"Do what? Dump me?"
"No. I'll turn you if that's what you still want."
"What?"
"That way I can never hurt you. If you don't want that and you still want to wait we can but—"
Josh cut him off by grabbing the hand that was by his mouth. He squeezed it tightly. "I love you, Tyler."
"I love you too, Josh. So much."
"Then let's do it."