Chapter Text
“Hey, what… Ty, what are you doing here? Tyler?!”
Josh’s panicky voice pulls Tyler out of his slumber. All the sounds are still muffled by drowsiness, and Tyler’s brain struggles to recognize his surroundings; reality seems to be a little foreign.
Tyler finally cracks his eyelids open and shivers from the cold night air brushing all over the bare skin on his arms and his legs. He’s almost awake, and he has to explain to Josh how he ended up standing in the middle of the park near the apartment building.
The grass tickles his feet as he takes a tiny step forward, but Josh instantly stops him, placing his warm palms on Tyler’s shoulders.
“You are… Gleaming,” Josh whispers dazedly.
Tyler blinks hard and looks down at himself — he sees the sparkling outlines of the rectangles and triangles on his chest even though his black t-shirt covers some of the light. The marks on his arms are emitting a golden-yellow glow, and Tyler feels feeble vibrations rushing through his trembling body. At first, he thinks that a sudden burst of Josh’s telekinesis causes that effect, but then Tyler realizes it’s coming from the solid ground they’re standing on. Tyler wishes he could just find a button and turn off the illumination his skin is creating. He’s freezing, his teeth are chattering, and he’s wearing nothing but his shirt and boxers — Tyler can already feel his blood turn to ice.
Tyler is holding something in his palm, he glances at it — it is a key. He couldn’t just get out through the closed door, indeed.
“Hey?” Josh shakes him a little. Poor Josh is half-naked as well; Tyler can see the goosebumps on his forearms. “Let’s get back to bed?”
Tyler nods silently, leaning to Josh as they’re walking back to the apartment building; Tyler’s heart is creeping up his throat, his mind is just filled up with anxiety and fear, and Josh keeps saying something about ‘I think I have to hide the keys for the night.’
“I’m sorry,” Tyler only croaks out when Josh leads him back into their apartment and closes the door, checking the lock like three times.
Tyler was probably sleepwalking again, this doesn’t come as a surprise; he’s had those episodes before, but he’d never left the apartment in an unconscious state before, and honestly, it’s a good reason to throw a tantrum.
“Are you alright, Ty?”
“I’m fine,” Tyler responds a little too quickly.
Josh presses his mouth into a thin line, shoving Tyler into the bathroom and urging him to scrub the dirt and fallen leaves off his feet. Tyler does as he told, holding his shaking hands under the stream of water for a long time and trying to wash the mysterious light away. The yellow color is fading gradually, and Tyler traces his fingers over the black bracelets wrapped around his left bicep.
He thought that thing was over after being abducted by the spaceship in the forest a few months ago.
It’s the new round.
Tyler watches the water swirling in the sink, taking the dust and sweat into the drain, and the blackness of the patterns somehow settles down the hurricane in Tyler’s brain.
Guiding Tyler back to the bedroom, Josh keeps controlling Tyler’s every uncertain step, but he doesn’t say anything even though Tyler notices how nervous and impatient Josh is. Tyler mentally burns himself down for being such a troublemaker; really, he wishes he could take care of himself and stop acting like an autistic baby.
“I woke up, and you weren’t in the bed with me,” Josh says as Tyler lies back down and rests his head onto the pillow that smells like Josh’s perfume. “I thought you were in the bathroom or something… I checked it, but it was empty, and I got hella worried. And then I noticed that the door was open,” Josh’s voice comes out in waves as he tries to calm himself down. “I couldn’t find you at first, but then I saw the gleaming in the park, and… What happened?”
The last thing Tyler remembers is falling asleep with his head on Josh’s shoulder, that’s all.
“I d-don’t know,” Tyler mutters, reaching his hand out and patting Josh’s purple curls.
Josh always picks the new color for his hair when something in his life changes.
“Tyler,” Josh begins to speak again. “Did you see something?”
“No,” Tyler huffs out.
“You were staring at the sky.”
“But my eyes were closed.”
“So you understand how creepy was it?”
Tyler wipes the sweat off his forehead.
“Yeah. Probably.”
He’s about to fall asleep again, but he doesn’t want to be a victim of these weird tricks. He still can’t figure out how he managed to make it out of the apartment without being noticed. He’s terrified and embarrassed, and if the agents of VESSEL will break the door of their apartment right now, it will be Tyler’s fault.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Tyler swallows nervously; their neighbors might’ve seen him, his gleaming and his powers.
“You scared me,” Josh exhales, nestling next to Tyler and wrapping his arm around Tyler’s torso. “Was it like… a call from Space?”
“I don’t know,” Tyler repeats.
The aliens use him as a barometer, and that invisible pointer in his head indicates that the storm is coming. All the vibrations localize in Tyler’s brain, making it buzz and toss inside his skull.
Josh’s lips are pressed to Tyler’s jaw, making him let out a tiny giggle even though he doesn’t feel like laughing.
“But we can deal with everything, can’t we?” Josh breathes out into Tyler’s ear. “I’m sure I’ll be able to catch you next time. Don’t want to print your photos on the cartons of milk.”
“I hope I’ll wake up before getting up from the bed.”
Tyler throws a quick glance at the digital watch on the bedside table — it’s 12:43 AM.
He rolls over to face Josh and throws his leg over Josh’s waist to anchor himself for the rest of the night.
***
His head feels strangely empty; the darkness gets replaced by the bright explosion, and the light begins to fill up the void. Tyler isn’t sure if he’s still sleeping, and his eyelids are too thin to block the white rays, hitting at his face; he wants to scream or move, but he’s strapped, he’s trapped, and he can only hear a shrill and rasping sound shooting through his eardrums, and the voice inside his head says-
‘Here’s your Mission.’
Tyler jolts awake covered in sweat; a small trickle runs down his collarbone, making his damp t-shirt stick to his chest, and Tyler is drowning in the ocean of panic. He squirms, but Josh only squeezes him harder; Tyler throws his head back, gasping for breath.
He only takes one spasmodic gulp of air before Josh starts to stir beside him.
“Tyler?” he grumbles sleepily. “Again?!”
“I’m awake,” Tyler wheezes out. “Just need to use the bathroom.”
Josh releases Tyler from his hug in a rush.
“Oh. Of course.”
Tyler is pretty sure Josh sees him sway as he gets up and crosses the room, hoping his legs won’t give up underneath him.
He makes it all the way to the bathroom quite successfully; Tyler fills up the sink with the cold water and plunges his face into it. He holds his breath, feeling the water sneak into his nostrils, but Tyler doesn’t let it flood his head and body; he emerges from this handmade pool as soon as his swelling lungs start begging for oxygen. Tyler looks at the mirror on the door of a cabinet above the sink and thinks he stares at a wax copy of himself: a fever paints his cheeks with an unhealthy blush, the rest of the skin on his face looks sickly green, his eyes are red-rimmed and puffy due to the lack of sleep.
“I’m not crazy,” Tyler whispers to his reflection.
Tyler’s reflection responds with a nasty crooked grin.
***
He wakes up to some rather unsettling noises and a weird pressure on both of his wrists; Tyler’s eyes are still screwed shut, and he can’t still figure out what happened to the bedroom and his sleeping position.
“T…er,” somebody tries to say his name, but it’s so very far from a coherent speech. “T…ler. St…p.”
The something-is-very-wrong sensation hits Tyler with full force, and he lets the reality slowly seep back into his mind. When he realizes what he’s doing, he nearly swoons. He finds himself sitting on Josh’s thighs and squeezing his throat with both of his hands; Josh grips at Tyler’s forearms, scratching them with his short fingernails, but Tyler’s thumbs keep pressing at Josh’s Adam’s apple as if he’s trying to make Josh gulp down a chunk of his own trachea. It’s pitch dark in the room, Tyler doesn’t see Josh’s face; Josh just wriggles underneath him; Tyler wants to remove his hands from Josh’s neck to let him inhale, but something just makes him keep strangling his already semiconscious boyfriend.
“Ty, n-no,” Josh chokes out, kicking the bedsheets.
Tyler’s imagination hands him a picture of Josh’s rolled eyes and blue lips, and his swollen tongue, and…
“Oh God,” Tyler suddenly feels like the mist is dissipating, and he can control his body again. He unclenches his hands, still slick with Josh’s and his own sweat. “J-josh?”
He’s afraid he won’t get any answer.
Josh’s bare chest rises and falls, his hands rub his tensed throat as he begins to cough violently. Tyler crawls away from him, standing on his knees on the mattress when Josh turns onto his side, almost swinging his head over the side of the bed, panting and wheezing like an asthmatic. It’s not just a nightmare, it’s a fucking scene from a horror movie. Tyler’s heart is hammering in his ribcage, and he can’t even find the courage to turn the ceiling lights on.
“This was…” Josh finally stops coughing his lungs up, but his voice is scratchy and raw. “Why?” is all he asks before rolling onto his stomach and hiding his face in the pillow.
“I don’t… I d-didn’t mean, Josh, oh God,” through the ringing in his ears Tyler doesn’t even hear the flow of babbling spilling out of his mouth. “I thought it was just a dream, and…”
He tried to kill Josh.
Tyler’s sick mind is just an endless chain of traps and well-hidden bombs, and Tyler doesn’t miss a chance to get caught. This is probably the beginning of the Mission he tried to deny; he can’t hide from the duty to kill all the Contactees even though he hasn’t realized it yet. But some signs start to surface.
“I’ll bring you some water,” Tyler decides, scrambling off the bed and going to the kitchen. He definitely spills some water on the table in the dark, but he doesn’t think it makes any sense right now.
This night wins the prize in a competition between the worst nights in Tyler’s life.
When he gets back into the bedroom, he sees Josh’s silhouette sitting on the edge of the bed, propping his elbows on his knees and covering his face with his hands.
“Josh?”
Tyler sets the water onto the bedside table. Then he turns on a small reading lamp only to check the damage he caused to a person he loves the most.
Josh’s usually pale neck is all purple and blue now, there are round and still red fingerprints, and when Tyler touches Josh’s shoulder it sends a million tiny electric discharges through Tyler’s veins. He thinks it can even make his marks glow again.
“I’m sorry, Josh.”
Josh turns away from him, grabbing the glass and carefully taking a sip of water.
“Tell me it was just a dream,” Josh finally utters, blinking at the light. “I didn’t expect that though.”
Tyler glances at the digital watch again. 3:57 AM. Tyler is sure that Josh isn’t interested in sleeping with him anymore.
“You could throw me across the room,” Tyler rubs his palms nervously.
“I didn’t want to hurt you,” Josh plasters a fake smile on his face. Then, his lips twitch a little, and the corners of his mouth curl downwards.
“I can sleep on a couch next time,” Tyler offers. “If you are… You know… If you’re not okay with… That.”
“I’m okay with that.”
“Josh…”
“Stop it,” Josh gets up from the bed and reaches for his clothes hanging from the chair. “It was just a nightmare.”
“I’ve almost choked you.”
“I’m aware,” Josh nearly chuckles.
Josh is so pure and innocent.
“I have to apologize,” Tyler whines. “Let me… Let me heal it?”
“Well,” Josh freezes, standing in front of Tyler with his jeans in his hand. “Doesn’t it look like a hickey?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
It’s just an ugly and shapeless mess.
Josh thinks for a minute, pressing his fingertips to his injured throat and furrowing his eyebrows.
“It will hurt you,” he says.
“It’s not that serious,” Tyler replies. “Come on, Josh, we can’t wait until it heals by itself.”
Josh doesn’t look enthusiastic about that.
“It won’t hurt me that bad. I promise.”
He has to find something positive in getting his powers back. Even though Jenna and VESSEL wouldn’t be proud of it.
“Fine,” Josh sits back down onto the bed and throws his head back, exposing his neck for Tyler.
Tyler rubs his palms to warm them up before closing his eyes and focusing on the activation of his internal reserves. Josh swallows the saliva, and Tyler’s fingertips catch the light bobbing of his Adam’s apple again; Tyler banishes the most disturbing memories and tries his best to hold the warmth that starts to soak through his skin.
Deep breaths.
Tyler feels Josh’s pulse on his carotid artery, he is waiting patiently, and it’s time to take his pain away.
Tyler opens his mouth as a thick invisible noose gets tied around his throat and squeezes it much harder than he expected; he almost takes his hands off Josh’s neck and gasps, gulping down the vacuum and diving into some kind of a surrealistic black hole. The pressure pushes his heart up his throat, but the noose doesn’t let it jump out of Tyler’s body. Josh had felt that a while ago, and now Tyler involuntarily re-calls for the nightmare, playing the main role.
He’s a victim, not a villain.
Tyler counts to ten; then, he allows himself to steal one tiny breath not to pass out and then counts to ten again. The skin on Josh’s neck grows hotter, he swallows again when Tyler is already in the final phase of the healing. He presses his fingers to the fading bruises, getting a small grunt from Josh, and then a sudden gust of air floods Tyler’s lungs, indicating the end of the operation.
This one was pretty easy to cure.
Tyler smirks a little, inspecting Josh’s neck closely and getting satisfied by the sight of a healthily pink skin without any foreign stains and spots. Josh is a little freckly, but that’s okay.
“What did you feel?” Tyler asks carefully when Josh shakes his head and touches his unharmed throat.
“Uh, almost nothing. Just some warmth,” he shrugs before meeting Tyler’s gaze. “You?”
“I’m alright,” Tyler says cagily. “It was my fault anyway. At least now you d-don’t have those terrible bruises.”
“I didn’t even see them,” Josh frowns.
“Better for you.”
Tyler’s inner self is so fucked up.