Start the song. It's Wasteland by Woodkid.

There were some things in Josh's life that had remained constant even after leaving the community. One, he still only liked black coffee. Two, he still only wore black clothes. Three, the hallways at school parted like the Red Sea when he walked through them. Four, he still was a junior in high school.

Ash, Jordan, Tyler, and Ashley were all crowded into the administrator's office as it was explained to the Duns that they'd all be repeating the grade they'd been in during their last year at school. While that did mean Josh was in the same grade as Tyler and Ashley now, it also meant he was behind. Again.

"Don't be discouraged though!" The school counsellor, a tiny lady with cat-eye glasses and curly hair, told them. "You're all very smart and capable of catching up. You've proved that to us before."

Josh's thumb kept brushing across his stitches anxiously. Yeah, he'd caught up from worse than this before, but he still didn't want to do it again. It was exhausting to always have to work harder than everyone else in school.

The administrator nodded. "That's true. Joshua, you didn't even know how to read in English when you started school, and you were eleven! You'll be fine. I'm sure you'll be able to graduate right on time."

"In English?" Tyler asked Josh.

"We could only read Latin," Josh mumbled.

He didn't realize he'd been picking at his stitches until his sister grabbed his hand and held it in hers. The way she did it was so fluid that no one else seemed to notice the action.

"You were in honours English last year and you hadn't even known how to read for more than five years?" Tyler asked, apparently baffled by that.

"I could read," Josh replied. He was fiddling with Ash's hand now instead. "Just not in English."

"Do you have anymore questions for us?" The counsellor asked.

Each of the Duns shook their heads, avoiding eye contact with the school elders. Josh felt sick just from being in this building. He didn't want to have to sit in this office all day listening to adults pretend to sympathise with them.

"That should be all then. Get to class. Have a-"

The door closed behind the Duns as they left. Ash didn't let go of Josh's hand, and he wondered if that was for her benefit or his. His little sister was doing an excellent job of hiding her fears, but he could still see the panic she was trying so hard to stuff away.

Josh released his sister's hand when they stepped into the hallway. His wife took that hand instead, and he instantly drew comfort from that.

Everything was different here. Tyler wasn't just some weirdo who talked to the kid that was in a cult. He was a basketball player who everyone said hi to when he passed them. Ashley wasn't the pretty art kid who made friends with everyone she came into contact with. She was a teenage mom now who didn't dye her hair crazy colours or make eye contact with people anymore.

"Why didn't you tell us you could read Latin?" Tyler asked curiously as they walked through the hallway.

"It never came up," Josh replied simply.

"Good luck," Ash whispered to Josh as she took Jordan's hand and led him down a different hallway.

Jordan looked fearfully back at Josh before pulling his hand out of their sister's grip and running back to Josh. He hugged Josh tightly, and Josh could feel that his little brother was shaking worse than either of the older Duns.

"Hey, you'll be okay," Josh told him quietly. "You've done this before."

"It was different last time," Jordan said in a shaky voice. "I can't do this, Bubba."

"Yes, you can," Josh assured him.

"What class do you have, sweetheart?" Ashley asked Jordan softly.

He handed her his schedule with a shaky hand. She looked it over while Josh combed his fingers through his little brother's curls. Thank goodness Abigail hadn't been able to cut them off.

They were getting a lot of weird stares from passersby, some Josh recognised and others he didn't. It didn't matter though. Jordan needed his big brother.

"Your class is right by mine. Do you want to walk with me?" Ashley asked Jordan gently.

Jordan looked up at Josh for confirmation. "She won't let anybody hurt you," he assured his little brother.

His wife held her hand out for Jordan. "Come on. I'll make sure you get there okay," she told him.

Jordan took her hand, looking anxiously at Josh. "Bye, Josh," he said quietly.

Josh smiled sadly at his brother, grateful that Tyler tangled their fingers together as they watched them leave. After everything he and Jordan had been through recently, it killed him to see his little brother walk away scared. Tyler seemed to understand, giving Josh a second to process before starting to walk again.

"This is going to be a long day," Josh told Tyler sadly.

"He'll be okay. You will be too," Tyler assured him.

There were a bunch of basketball players standing next to Tyler's locker when they got there. Josh recognized more than one of them as people who had treated him like shit for years, but he didn't say anything. They all seemed happy enough to see Tyler, not seeming to realize just who he was holding hands with as he opened his locker.

"Hey, Joseph. You ready for Friday?" One of the guys asked Tyler in a ridiculously deep voice for a high schooler.

"I guess," Tyler replied simply as he released Josh's hand to take off his coat and stuff it in his locker.

As soon as Tyler's hand was gone from Josh's, he started shaking again. Tyler seemed to notice, grabbing his hand again instantly before grabbing a book out of his locker. The basketball players went back to talking excitedly with each other about things that Josh didn't understand.

"Do you want to put your stuff in my locker so you don't have to go find yours?" Tyler asked Josh.

That was when the other basketball players seemed to realize that Josh was there. Anxiety gripped Josh as he let his husband take his backpack from him, taking out all of the books he didn't need for next period and sticking them inside his locker.

"Dude," one of the basketball players began, looking directly at Josh, "Do you have any idea how many games we've won because of you?"

Josh looked at Tyler in confusion, only for one of the other players to answer his unasked question for him. "Bro, that cross thing on Tyler's arm! The other teams always freak the fuck out because the devil kid is on our team."

"I didn't put that there," Josh said finally, still feeling extremely confused.

Why were they happy that Tyler had been branded with white hot metal? Was that really worth it if it meant winning a basketball game?

"No, man, but you're the reason he's got it, right?" The kid with the deep voice asked.

A painful knot was twisting in Josh's stomach. Was that really what people thought? They believed that this was really and truly his fault? He looked at his husband, glad to find him glaring at the other basketball players.

"Why the hell would you say it like that? The last thing Josh wanted was for me to get hurt," Tyler told them.

"Shit. I didn't mean it like that," they all started, rambling apologies to Josh.

Josh was distracted though when he started to feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Someone was watching him. He looked around the hallway, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Anxiety gripped him, prompting him to tangle his fingers with Tyler's. Over and over, he reminded himself that his husband wouldn't let anyone hurt him. He didn't need to be afraid.

"I'll talk to you guys later," Tyler told his friends as he closed his locker and led Josh through the hall. He looked to his husband. "You okay?"

Josh nodded, still feeling uneasy. "I'm okay," he said quietly.

His husband studied him carefully. "You're not telling me something. What aren't you telling me?"

If Josh wasn't so bad at lying to Tyler, he'd probably try to get out of telling him what was really bothering him. He sucked at lying though, so he caved. "Pete told me in the hospital that I had to come back to school as soon as possible. He said he had someone who'd been watching to make sure you and Ashley were okay while I was gone. I just...I'm paranoid about it."

Tyler sighed, wrapping an arm around Josh's shoulders. "No one was watching us, Josh. You don't need to be worried." He kissed Josh's temple. "What's your first class today?"

"I don't know," Josh replied distractedly as he glanced around the hallway.

He jumped when Tyler took his schedule out of his back pocket, looking anxiously at him. Tyler smiled softly. "I'm sorry. Breathe, okay?"

He nodded, shrinking against Tyler as his husband looked over his schedule. "Okay."

"You have English with Dallon. That's good news for you. Ashley does too," Tyler told him with a smile. "Besides, how long has it been since you last saw Dallon?"

"A couple weeks maybe," Josh replied, looking down at his feet.

Tyler stopped walking. "Wait. Dallon knew you were alive, and he didn't tell us?"

Josh looked up at Tyler, surprised to find that he looked angry. "He said he'd let me be the one to make the decision on whether or not I told you. He promised to keep an eye on you until I decided. That's why you cried in his office, right?"

Josh was surprised to find that Tyler looked even more angry when he said that. "You knew about that?"

The anxiety already eating away at Josh was only growing as he saw his husband get more and more angry with him. Finally it was too much, and Josh stumbled backwards away from Tyler, who suddenly looked concerned.

"Josh-"

"I have to go," Josh said shakily.

Tyler's voice softened. "Baby-"

"I'll see you later," Josh said in the weakest voice he'd ever heard.

Then he was hurrying away, disappearing into the crowd and away from Tyler. The anxiety was twisting his stomach into painful knots that made him want to vomit. His hands were shaking, and he couldn't calm them. The anxiety was only made worse by the way people scrambled to get out of his way as he walked to Dallon's classroom, desperately avoiding being touched by him at all.

It wasn't until Josh actually got to Dallon's classroom and saw the man talking calmly to Ashley that he started to relax. Ashley looked up, smiling when she saw him. The few other people in the room looked much less enthused by his arrival, but Josh didn't care. Two people who cared about him and weren't mad at him were here. He was okay.

His hands were still shaking when he sat down in the desk next to Ashley's. Everyone in the vicinity cleared out, moving to the desks as far away from his as possible, but he didn't care.

"Hey, buddy. How've you been?" Dallon asked Josh calmly, pretending not to have noticed the other students' immediate fear of Josh.

"I'm okay," Josh lied quietly.

Dallon nodded, but it was clear in his eyes that he'd seen the hidden truth. "How are your siblings?"

"They're okay," Josh replied, thinking of how terrified Jordan had been this morning.

Once again, Dallon knew the truth. "Your mom?"

"Okay."

"Your niece?"

"Okay."

"Your son?"

Josh couldn't help but smile then. "He's really good."

Dallon smiled back at him. "Yeah?"

He nodded. "Yeah. He's...he's awesome."

Ashley was beaming now. She reached a hand out and took one of his, much to the surprise of the other students in the room. His anxiety was lessened now though at the mention of his little baby. Nothing was as scary when he thought about the tiny human that he and Ashley had created. There wasn't a thing on earth Josh could do that would make his son any less proud of him, and that was extremely comforting.

More students were filtering in now as the time school started drew nearer. They all sat as far away from him as possible, but he didn't care. Ashley wanted him to sit by her, and she was the only student in this room that mattered to him.

Dallon ruffled Josh's hair before going to sit at his desk. Ashley kissed each of Josh's knuckles before trailing soft kisses along his stitches before taking his other hand to do the same, just like Tyler had in the car. Tyler.

"Tyler's mad at me," Josh told Ashley quietly.

"He's not mad at you. Why would he be mad at you?" Ashley asked softly.

"Because Dallon knew I wasn't dead, and you guys didn't," Josh said quietly. "He told me about you guys so I wouldn't worry so much."

Ashley was quiet for a moment before kissing his palm. "I don't think Tyler's mad at you, sweetie. I think he's mad at Dallon."

"Why would he be mad at Dallon?" Josh asked, confusion knitting his eyebrows together.

"Dallon saw us every day and didn't tell us. We came in here on days when we couldn't handle it anymore. He never told us," Ashley told Josh. "I'm kind of annoyed with him right now too, but I'm not mad at you. Tyler isn't either. I promise."

It seemed too good to be true, but Josh nodded.
Every desk but the ones beside Josh were full as the bell rang. That seemed to annoy Ashley too, but it felt normal for Josh. No one had ever sat beside him in classes apart from Ashley, Tyler, and Brendon. He was used to this.

Still, he smiled when Ashley leant forward and kissed him softly, making the whole classroom fall silent. When she broke the kiss, she smiled at him comfortingly. He was still smiling when Dallon started to talk about something to do with the class. If Ashley wasn't mad at him, hopefully Tyler wasn't either. Either way, he was glad that Ashley didn't let go of his hand as the class dragged on. He was safe.