i was watching an interview from with Tyler, and i noticed that when he was talking about how in Trench he made sure to not define or label the place that he, and the listener, is trying to get to, or reach.
i think this really gives you a window into the fact that he’s been through a lot, but more importantly it hasn’t made him cold. he’s learned so much from his own pain that he knows now that you can’t try to put a label on the place your trying to reach. Everybody has different experiences, and a win for one person might be staying clean for a week, and a win for someone else might be staying clean for a year. He knows that nobody conforms to one single mold. And thats what makes us, and keeps us, human.
There is a playlist on Spotify called ‘You and Me’. I have decided to start a loosely affiliated drabble series based on these songs - one for each song. This drabble is part of that series.
Welcome to ‘Love Songs’.
Raincoat
Word Count: 1573
Summary: Soulmate AU where if you aren’t with your soul mate you suffer from love frostbite. JoshxReader
Notes: This drabble is based on the song ‘Raincoat’ by Timeflies and SHY Martin.
Also, I know the pic of Josh looks like he has black lipstick... trust the story.
You crossed your legs, the right over the left, and sighed. Your eyes glanced up to your boyfriend - if you could call him that. He was laughing with some other guys across the room, it was the first time this week you had seen him happy. You understood why. Your gaze wandered down to your own hands, that black leeching its way from the fingertips had made it all the way to your second knuckle now. You imagined the same black had wormed its way around your heart, and his.
It couldn’t be helped.
You were Sundered.
The black on your fingers, toes, and lips gave you away.
It was a fate you could never explain. Something that those who didn’t carry it couldn’t understand. The tingling and then numbness that followed the black as it changed your skin. The same thing that happened to your emotions. The numbness that seemed to fill your life.
You twirled your drink in your glass contemplating how you would explain to your mother the next time you saw her when the knife twist in your stomach caused your breath to catch in your chest.
Your hands clutched the edge of the table you were sitting at as you turned to look at the entrance of the club. You could see him, just beyond the frame of the door. He was paying for himself and the blonde that stood next to him.
Your soulmate.
Your breathing returned rapidly as panic spread through your limbs, the most vivid thing you had felt in months. Your right inner wrist began to burn and you rested your left hand over the black blotch that seemed to heat your skin from within.
Your eyes couldn’t leave him, you watched as he took her hand in his and they made their way into the main room of the only club that would allow the Sundered through its doors. As soon as his foot stepped past the door frame you saw it, that look of knowing on his face. He felt it too.
The blonde slipped away from his side, seeing someone she knew. But he remained where he was, his eyes locked with yours.
Time stopped. But only for a heartbeat.
You tore your eyes from his and looked at your boyfriend who was still laughing with his friends. You willed him to look at you, to catch your mental cue to leave. But he continued to laugh and talk with those around him.
The tightness in your chest pinched down harder and harder and you knew he was crossing the room to you now. His eyes on your back.
You stiffened when he came into view, coming up from your right side and standing at the other side of the table.
“Do you mind if I sit with you, Y/N?” His voice hadn’t changed. It was the same voice that haunted your nightmares and filled your best dreams.
“Of course not,” you try to feign disinterest, but you know he can see the shaking of your hands. “I see you’re here with Lauren.”
“Yeah,” his eyes glance to where the blonde is standing with her friends and settle on his own hands, the black fingertips resting on the table. “It’s just easy, you know?”
“I know,” you glance to where Travis is standing, still smiling, completely unaware of the pain you are feeling.
“It’s good to see you, Y/N,” his shoulders finally release some of the tension they had been holding.
“You too, Josh,” you let loose a shaky sigh and rub your fingers over the black mark on your right wrist.
“I just don’t know if I can do this anymore!” you yelled, finally saying the words out loud. “You’re gone all the time, and I’m always here alone and I can’t stand it.” The tears you had been fighting back were falling now, hot and full of the emotions you had both been fighting.
“Are we really doing this?” Josh’s voice was soft as the realization of where all your fighting was leading settled over the two of you.
“I think so.” You could feel your heart breaking. It had been wonderful in the beginning. The two of you together. You couldn’t have imagined someone fitting in your life so well, so completely. But he had. It was his absence from your life that was the problem. Since the fame of Twenty One Pilots had risen he was home less and less and the completeness he had brought into your life along with him.
You would rather he be gone all the time forcing you to learn to cope with the hole than the constant flitting in and out.
You would rather deal with the fallout of not being with him than the pain of him being around and then gone.
“If this is what you want, Y/N,” you could hear the pain in his voice, “then I won’t argue anymore.”
“I think that it would be best,” you watched as your fingers wrung the blanket in your lap.
“I guess,” he stood from the couch and crossed your living room to the front door, “this is goodbye then.”
You only nodded.
You fiddled with the half-full cup now as your fingers had the blanket then.
“You aren’t here alone, are you?” his fingers continued to lightly drum on the table top.
“No, I’m here with Travis,” you motioned with your head towards where he was standing about twenty-five feet away.
“Are you two...” Josh turned to look at him, his question trailing off when he saw the large black swirls arching over the man’s skin all the way to the elbows, down his jaw and neck.
“His wife died three years ago,” you jumped to explain. “They lived in an apartment down the hall. I kinda look like her, so it’s, you know…” you hold your hands in the air with a light chuckle, “easy.”
“Yeah,” he turned back around, his fingers returning to drumming.
Silence. Heavy, full silence. Your whole body hummed into that silence. It screamed at you. The burning on your wrist deepened.
“Do you ever think about that night?” his eyes were on the ground, studying some unknown spot.
“All the time,” you breathed.
The two of you laughed as you tumbled into your living room.
“I’m so sorry!” you steadied yourself against him, your hands on his chest. “I didn’t mean to hog the umbrella. Let me get you a towel.”
“Yeah,” he was grinning, “okay.”
You hurried out of the room, your skin flushed from being so close to him. You couldn’t stop smiling.
You changed into your own warm pajamas and grabbed an oversized shirt from college and a towel for Josh.
“Here you go…” you froze as you rounded the corner into your living room.
Josh had taken off his soaked jacket and shirt, leaving him topless in just his shorts.
“Wow-” he breathed but was cut off by a wince of pain as he grabbed his right wrist.
You hissed yourself at the scraping, burning across your own skin. When you removed your hand from your wrist your eyes widened. It was there in the thin skin over your tendons and veins, his name.
Josh
You look at him and his eyes were as wide as yours. He held out his wrist and on it, in your handwriting was your name.
“You forgot your raincoat, so I walked you home,” he smiled softly.
“I forgot it on purpose because I wanted you before this ever happened,” your fingers idly ran over your right wrist. Over the black that blocked out his name.
His eyes snapped up and met yours.
The knife in your stomach twisted again.
“You what?” his brows knit together.
“I forgot my raincoat on purpose,” you studied his face, there was something in his eyes you couldn’t work out.
He grabbed your hand in his and pulled you away from the table. You didn’t have time to react as he led you towards the hallway that led to the bathrooms. You couldn’t fight him. All you could do was focus on the feeling that was suddenly returning to your fingers as they rubbed against his. The heat was exquisite.
He pulled you into the dark hallway and pushed you against a wall. His hands were on either side of your head as he leaned in closer. You could feel the heat of his body as it hovered over yours.
“Say it again,” he breathed, “please.”
Your eyes searched his, seeing the same desperation in him that you felt in yourself.
“I forgot my raincoat on purpose,” you whispered.
His hands cupped your face and his lips pressed against yours with an urgency you were eager to rise to meet. The numbness in your fingertips, in your lips, around your heart melted away and for the first time in six months, you could feel.
Josh pulled away and rested his forehead against yours. “I can’t stop thinking about you, Y/N.” He closed his eyes. “I only agreed to leave because I thought you were only with me because of marks. I never would have left if I had known that you felt the same way as I did. I know what we were doing before wasn’t working, and I will gladly take all the blame for that if you would just…” he paused, biting his bottom lip. “If we could just try again.”
You slowly reached up and traced his jaw with your fingertips, the scratch of his stubble was the best thing you could imagine.
Summary: There was a man in the Trench today. His presence has stirred up confusion in the whole camp, including inside Clancy and his partner, Porter. Will they be able to discover the true nature behind the purpose of Dema and the Trench? Do they want to? East is up.
Warnings: This story will contain content of a serious nature. Including the following: deep personal fears, torture, and heavy emotions.
Read previous parts: Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four
Word Count: 1403
Enjoy!
Chapter Five - The Ground Taunts My Wings
Gordon froze as her eyes locked with Tyler’s, the man from Trench. There was a sudden tearing feeling in her head that caused her to drop the firewood she had been carrying. Her mind was flooded with overwhelming memories.
The first time they met, collecting their food rations for the day. He had bumped her, causing her to drop her bread all over the ground.
The first time he gained the courage to ask her if she ever thought about the future.
The first time she admitted out loud that she had.
The secret whispered meetings. They would dream about leaving Dema, about being free.
The time she had been caught trying to look beyond the wall, and he had taken her lashings from the priest for her.
The first time she realized he had a light in his eyes, and that she had one in hers to match.
The night they made plans to leave Dema. To escape the dreamless world of muted light.
The night they made their way through the underground tunnel. Her hand tucked in his.
That was it. That was where her memories stopped. The next thing she remembered was waking up in Trench.
Tyler stood from where he had been crouched on the ground, “Yvie.”
Tears began to fill her eyes. “Tyler,” she breathed taking a step forward.
“Yvie!” he called, his voice breaking.
“Tyler!” she held her arms out towards him.
“Yvie!” he broke into a run, colliding with her as his arms wrapped around her small frame.
Tears continued to fall down his cheeks, “I thought I’d lost you!”
“I forgot…” she was gasping, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I forgot. I forgot. I forgot.” She was beginning to tremble. “I forgot you,” she pulled back and looked up at him, “how could I forget you?”
“Your head,” he looked at the healing wound, “you hit it so hard, and I...” his voice caught in this throat, “I couldn’t carry you and get away from the Bishop.”
Yvie’s brow furrowed.
“If I carried you, he would catch us both,” Tyler sighed shakily, “but if I managed to hide you, then maybe - just maybe he would only find me.”
“Tyler,” Yvie breathed and wrapped her arms around him again. “You sacrificed yourself for me.”
“I did,” his grip on her tightened, “and I was punished for it.” His voice was low, weighted with guilt. “The woman in Trench,” keeping his arms around Yvie he turned to look at Sheridan, “who was she?”
“What woman?” Lincoln frowned.
Josh’s breathing was ragged as his hands fisted around her blanket and pulled it from under the broken frame of her cot.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, pressing the blanket to his cheek. “I’m so sorry.”
I don’t want to lose the light in my eyes.
Her words echoed in his mind. And the anger inside him shifted.
I don’t want to go back to how it was.
He had promised her. He promised that he wouldn’t leave her alone. And he wouldn’t.
He slowly stood and gently folded her blanket before resting it on his cot.
“I’m coming, Marie,” he whispered to the emptiness of their tent. “I will bring you home.”
Sheridan sighed and stepped forward, “Porter.”
“What do you mean Porter was in Trench?” Lincoln’s voice was tight.
Lily’s eyes darted around the camp, “where are they?” Her voice was panicked, “where are Clancy and Porter?”
Movement from their tent drew all eyes towards the yellow-haired man.
“Her name is Marie,” his voice was low, “and I’m going to bring her back.”
“This is crazy,” Sheridan crossed his arms, “I don’t like where this is going.”
“What do you mean you’re going to get her back?” Lincoln frowned at Josh.
“I mean I’m going back into Dema and I’m going to get her back.” His face was set, his jaw tight. “I will go alone if I have to.”
Tyler squeezed Yvie’s hand.
She nodded in reply.
“We’ll go with you,” Tyler stepped forward, “she was taken by Nico, the Bishop of Fears. He will punish her in my place as if it is her third escape. He is cruel and unrelenting. You’ll need help.”
“I’ll help too,” Ruthie stepped forward so she was standing next to Tyler. “If it wasn’t for her, we would be back there now. Besides, I’d love to stick it to Nico one more time.” Her blue eyes danced with a fierceness Josh felt mirrored in his own.
Yvie turned to look at Lincoln. “Will you be okay while I’m gone?”
Lincoln’s eyes were on the ground, her mouth turned down. “I should help.” She shook her head, “no, I have to help.”
“Lincoln?” Yvie reached for her friend.
“My name is Lily,” she pulled away from the touch, “and I…”
“It’s okay,” Josh said, “take your time.”
“I know how to get us in,” she breathed and closed her eyes, “I know how to get us in and back out.”
Yvie’s brow furrowed, “but you were from a different district, wouldn’t Tyler and Ruthie be able to-”
“I was a priest,” Lily’s eyes finally raised and met her partner’s, “I was a priest before I left Andre district. I know how to get in and out of all the districts and how we can get away with it.”
“You were…” Yvie’s voice was quiet, “you were a priest?”
“Yes,” Lily’s gaze returned to the ground. “I know that might…” tears rolled down her cheeks, “I know that might make me not welcome among you anymore, but I can’t just ignore the fact that I could help get Porter-”
“Marie,” Josh interrupted, “use her real name.”
Lily sighed shakily, “if I could help get Marie out.”
“Lily,” Yvie stepped forward, “you will always be my friend.” She took the girl’s hands in her own, “no matter your past.”
Lily fought back tears.
Ruthie made her way to the pair and stared at Lily. Her finger curled under the crying girl’s chin lifting it up so their eyes met. “It doesn’t matter what you were inside Dema,” her voice was soft, comforting, “we were all held under the Bishop’s rule. All that matters now is that light in your eyes and your Bandito heart.”
“Fire,” Lily breathed, her eyes still locked with Ruthie’s, “we have a fire here and they have little to defend against it. We could burn the district and possibly get more people out.”
“That’s it,” Josh turned and walked towards the benches that surrounded the burning frame, “tonight we will plan, tomorrow we will burn the place to the ground.” He placed a foot on the seat of the bench and heaved himself up so he was two feet above everyone else.
“For too long we have hidden in the safety of the forest. For too long we have lived in the ever-growing fear of the Bishops. We let them reach us even here and rule our lives.” He took a deep breath. “I’m done letting them decide my fate for me. My name is Josh and I come from Keon district and I was a metal worker there. I met Marie at the meetings our group had before we left, but I didn’t understand how important she was…” his voice broke, “how much she would mean to me.” He clenched his jaw against the pressing tears, “I will bring her home, and I will try to pull as many out as I can when I do. I know the idea of returning to Dema is terrifying, but we can’t allow the Bishops to continue to hold sway over all we do. So I will ask you only once, who’s with me?”
Banditos who had hidden away in their tents, or were lingering on the outskirts of the camp now stepped forward.
“I will,” a soft voice came from behind Josh.
He turned to see Seneca standing near the frame.
“My name is Jennifer and I’m from Reisdro district,” she pulled in a breath, steeling her confidence, “and I will help you bring back Marie.”
One by one Banditos raised their voices, joining the cause.
Tyler's the average kid.
Well, as average as he could be.
He spends most of his time day dreaming about what he wishes could be. He's a dreamer.
One night, he meets Josh Dun, and everything he thought was possible changes.
For once, he believes.
Tyler's the average kid.
Well, as average as he could be.
He spends most of his time day dreaming about what he wishes could be. He's a dreamer.
One night, he meets Josh Dun, and everything he thought was possible changes.
For once, he believes.
