Start the song. It's The Crooked Kind by Radical Face.

Tyler dragged the toe of his sneaker across the locker room floor, watching the action anxiously. The school they were meant to play today was here, using the girls' locker room since the home team had taken the boys'. Tyler's stomach kept rolling over inside of him, and his scars felt like they were fresh wounds again. Josh was late, and Tyler needed him here now more than ever.

"You okay, man?" Brad asked carefully, sitting down on the bench beside Tyler as he put his shoes on.

Even though it was an obvious lie, Tyler nodded, not once looking up from his shoes.

He heard Brad sigh. "Tyler, dude, you don't have to lie to me. I've got your back. You know that."

Tyler picked anxiously at his fingernail, nodding weakly. "I know," he whispered.

"Then what's up?" Brad pressed.

The other boys in the locker room were too busy putting on their uniforms and talking about nothing to care about Tyler's and Brad's conversation. That made Tyler feel secure enough to give Brad an extremely vague explanation.

"I'm nervous," he admitted. "I hate those assholes out there."

Brad clearly understood that, nodding easily. "If any of them say shit to you, you tell me. I don't care if I get kicked off the team for knocking the shit out of one of those snobby douchebags. I'll do it."

Tyler barely cracked a smile, already feeling more comfortable sharing his fears with Brad. Brad had been protective of him since he'd first joined the team, and Tyler was forever grateful of that. He'd earned Tyler's trust.

"I'm just hoping Josh will get here soon. He said he needed to go get stuff from the community and to get his brother and sisters to help, but he's taking forever. I wish he'd at least left Ashley with me. I mean, I'm glad she's there to take care of him while he's inside the fence again, but it's nice to have at least one of them with me when I'm scared," Tyler tried to explain.

"How exactly does a relationship with three people in it work, man? Like, don't you get jealous when she spends time with Josh and not you? Doesn't it bother you that JJ is genetically theirs? I don't know how you do it," Brad said as he tied his shoe.

Tyler smiled. "I don't get jealous. I'm glad when they're spending time alone together. It's good for both of them, and it's a huge relief to know that they both get to have two people loving them instead of one. And JJ may be genetically theirs, but he's my baby too. I couldn't love him any more even if he was biologically mine. I actually think part of what I love so much about him is that he's two of my favourite people combined."

Talking about his family was calming him down without him realizing it, distracting him from his fear. Brad kept talking.

"Okay, so you're in a burning building. You can only save one of them. Who do you save?" Brad asked with a slight smirk.

Tyler smirked right back. "Trick question. If I could only save one, I'd stay in the building with them both so none of us would have to die alone."

That response seemed to surprise Brad. "Seriously?"

Tyler shrugged, glancing at the locker room door hopefully when it started to open. Relief flooded him when Josh came in, looking nervous until he saw Tyler who instantly shot off of the bench and ran to him. Tyler didn't mean to slam into Josh as hard as he did when he hugged him, but they both nearly fell backwards. That might have been because Tyler didn't just hug Josh though. He jumped on him, and he was lucky Josh's first instinct was to catch him.

The muscles in Tyler's cheeks were burning from his smile as he kissed Josh's cheek. "You came," he said happily.

"Well, yeah. I promised," Josh replied quietly, allowing Tyler to remain hidden against his shoulder with with his legs wrapped around his waist and his arms wrapped around his shoulders. "I brought some help."

Tyler looked up, peering over his shoulder. He was expecting Josh's siblings and his wife and maybe Hayley, but the breath left his chest when his eyes met Patrick's. In an instant he was clambering down off of Josh and onto shaky legs.

"Oh my god," he breathed out as he walked past Josh and hugged Patrick. "You're alive."

"So are you," Patrick replied quietly, hugging Tyler tightly.

A million emotions were spilling into Tyler's body as he hugged Patrick. Apart from Josh and Ashley, Patrick had been the person who understood Tyler most inside of the fence. They were both captives who'd found a reason to not want to leave. They'd both been outsiders who for some reason were welcomed easily into The Family. Tyler had had nightmares about Patrick dying after seeing all of the bodies on the news.

"Is-Did Pete-?" Tyler asked hopefully, still not releasing Patrick.

"As if I'd let something as stupid as death separate me from Patrick," a familiar voice replied.

Tyler didn't realize he was crying until he let out a sob instead of a laugh. Patrick passed him on to Pete though, and Tyler hugged him just as tightly.

"I found them in the community," Josh explained. "Well, Pete found me. He brought me to Patrick, Colin, Sarah, Taylor, and Debby. They'd been hiding too."

Tyler couldn't bring himself to release his death grip on Pete as he looked at all of the other kids dressed in black who were watching him with wide eyes. He smiled at them even though he was crying.

"I'm so glad you guys are here," he told them sincerely.

Some of them smiled back shyly while others clung to the face of indifference they'd been trained to keep around outsiders. They all looked to Josh as if he could make this all make sense to them.

Ashley smiled from where she was standing beside the two other girls, handing JJ to Brendon before walking over and gently peeling Tyler off of Pete. "Okay, honey. Let him breathe. Should we go into the locker room and start painting?"

Tyler swallowed hard, searching her eyes only to find the same sparkle he knew was in his. For over a year they'd had nightmares about the cult that had trapped them returning, but they were relieved now that a few members had resurfaced. These people would understand their scars and the horrors they'd seen.

It felt like Tyler was breaking free from tunnel vision as he started to process who all was there. Josh's siblings were all beaming even though they were dressed in their clothes from the community. Ash and Jordan were wearing solid black while Abigail was in a childish white dress like the one Ashley had been forced to wear. Abigail's patience with waiting her turn dissipated when she made eye contact with Tyler and she was running to him. He caught her just like Josh had caught him, picking her up and carrying her into the locker room.

The boys in the locker room were absolutely silent, looking at Abigail as if she was going to grow a second head at any second. She stared right back at them, not backing down until they broke eye contact first. The rest of The Family followed Tyler in, making Tyler's team look a lot more intimidated. Tyler took it upon himself to break the silence.

"This is Josh's sister Abigail. You guys know Ash and Jordan. That's Josh's best friend, Pete, and his husband, Patrick," Tyler began, looking to Josh for help with the names of the kids he didn't recognize.

"Oh. Um, that's Debby, Colin, Sarah, and Taylor. They're my family too," Josh explained, maintaining eye contact with his shoes.

The silence held out for a second before Brad took the initiative. "I'm Brad Heaton. That's Andrew Lee. That's Mark Eshleman. That's Gabe Saporta. That's Joe Trohman. That's Andy Hurley. That's Donald Glover. That's Jon Bellion," Brad introduced, pointing to each of the guys as he spoke. He smiled warmly at the kids cowering slightly behind Josh. "It's cool if you don't remember all of that though. We're just glad you're here."

Tyler smiled, looking at the kids Josh had brought with him to see how they were taking this. He was surprised to find that they all looked terrified. Debby was barely visible from where she was peeking out from behind Ashley. Colin wouldn't look up from his shoes. Sarah had grabbed Brendon's hand out of instinct before fearfully scurrying off to Ash. Taylor was clinging so tightly to Jordan's hand that it was making them both wince.

It took Tyler a second to process when Taylor looked to Josh and said something to him. It wasn't until Josh replied that Tyler realized the words weren't in English. Tyler's eyebrows drew together in confusion, signalling to Josh that something abnormal had just occurred. His husband's eyes widened as if he hadn't even realized he'd been speaking a different language.

"Oh," Josh said quietly before looking to Taylor. "I know you've been taught to think they're outsiders, but you don't have to be scared. It's okay. You can talk to them."

"Was that Latin?" Jon asked from across the locker room with wide eyes. "That's so cool."

Brad sent him a look, and he fell silent, giving the trembling kids across the room a moment to process. Surprisingly, Jordan spoke.

"Taylor, you can trust Brad. Bubba trusts him. If Bubba trusts him, we all can. He's good," he said quietly, and it was clear from the look in Taylor's eyes that he was internalizing what Jordan was saying.

"Who's Bubba?" Mark asked curiously.

Jordan glanced at each of the kids around him, and Tyler found himself beaming with pride as the Dun sibling who usually spoke the least and went unnoticed took on the task of reassuring everyone in the room by simply being himself. His voice was level as he spoke, and Tyler knew he had to be fighting with all his might to keep it that way.

"Joshua is Bubba. I couldn't say his name when I was little so I called him that. I think I was trying to say 'brother' but couldn't say that either. Abigail started calling him that when she was little too," Jordan explained.

Something about that tiny detail regarding their childhood seemed to start breaking down the barrier between the two groups of people standing on opposite sides of the locker room.

"My little brother called me that when he was a kid too," Gabe recalled.

"My brother just calls me when he needs money," Brad said with a smirk. "I'd take Josh over him any day."

Tyler saw Josh and Pete share an amused look before Pete decided to chime in. "You say that until he gets hungry, and then you find out how whiny he is."

Laughter filled the room, making Tyler instinctually look at Josh to make sure he knew the laughter wasn't meant to make fun of him. He grinned when he saw Josh laughing too.

"You aren't even hungry. What's your excuse?" He asked Pete with a grin.

It was amazing how much Josh lit up with his childhood friends around him. For the first time in a long time, he looked confident and secure. He looked more like the boy who'd given Tyler the amulet and saved his life than the boy whom Tyler had held together while he started to fall apart in the bathtub. Some missing part of Josh had clicked back into place, and it was such a relief to see it back where it belonged.

Unsurprisingly, it was Ash who cut through the enthusiasm in the room. "Weren't we kind of under a time crunch?" She asked.

"Right!" Josh said. "Um, so the girls are gonna have to teach us how to do these as we go along. Guys weren't allowed to do this in the community."

Debby clapped her hands together before pulling Josh's backpack off of him and opening it. "Alright. Ash is the expert. She's in charge, so everyone shut up and listen to her or lose an ear. Got it?"

The basketball players all looked nervously at Tyler, who laughed with the rest of The Family. He grinned at his team. "She's joking. Just pay attention. This will be fun."

Tyler didn't mention it out loud, but he was silently praying that this wouldn't be a complete disaster. He was happy Josh's friends were here. He really was. He was just a little worried about becoming completely outcasted by the team like he had been when he'd first joined. Please, please God let this work out.