singtothesky_ helped!

I wrote this before the music videos came out, so it's a little inaccurate, but I tried.

Thanks to @fanfictionST for all the votes!

Summary: You live in Dema and you want out. You've just found someone to help you.

QOTP: Jumpsuit or Niners?

Word Count: 2480

Josh -
The first thing you see is his eyes.

Obviously, you saw him from a distance - the dark green hoodie with the hood pulled up over his head and the yellow mask covering his face from the nose down.

His eyes are the only part of him you can see when you get closer.

And you can't look away from them.

"Are you alright?" he asks. You don't hear him, so he pulls his mask down and repeats himself. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah. I guess," you reply, involuntarily blushing. He's really cute.

He smiles. "You made it."

You can't help but smile, too, despite the exhaustion and the scrapes on your knees you got from tripping while running from the watchers. "Yeah."

You escaped Dema - you and two others - with the help of the Banditos.

"What's your name?" he asks.

"Y/N."

"I'm Josh."

The two others you escaped with are having similar conversations with other Banditos.

"Welcome to Trench," Josh says, gesturing behind him at the canvas tents, lit torches, and people milling about. "We'll have to find you and your friends a vacant tent. Maybe set up a new one..."

"I don't care where I sleep," you say, looking around, "as long as it's not in Dema."

"Food's pretty tight, too."

"Anywhere is better than Dema, Josh. Anywhere."

Before he can respond, your friends you escaped with walk over to you, excited to be free. You match their excitement, and Josh can't help but smile.

////

"Hungry?" Josh asks, amused. You're sitting next to him at the fire lit earlier after sunset, eating dinner. You were starving, so you threw decency out the window and started eating as fast as humanly possible.

Luckily, Josh doesn't find it disgusting. He found it more cute than anything, despite the broth dripping down your chin.

"Running from Dema and Bishops all day tends to make people hungry," you reply, surprisingly taking a break from shoveling food in your mouth.

"Well, you're not wrong."

It's so weird; he doesn't know what to say to you. He doesn't wanna sound stupid, so much so that's he's overthinking everything just trying to make conversation. He's never done that before. Not this bad.

He doesn't know that you're thinking the same thing.

"So... whose region did you live in?" he asks, then instantly regrets it. You probably want to talk about anything other than Dema right now.

"Nico." He grimaces, but says nothing for a while, trying to think of something to say. You speak first. "Do you have any extra clothes? I've been wanting to change since we got here."

He nods. "We're running a bit low, but I can scrounge up something. I'll get some for your friends, too."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

When he gets back, you've finished eating and he's already given a change of clothes to both your friends. He hands a change to you. "Here. The sweatshirt might be a bit big-"

You look at it - the camo and the yellow, the latter on top of the former, creating the best color scheme you've ever seen: Freedom. "They're perfect." You go to change, then come back and sit down next to Josh. He can't help but smile; he was right - the sweatshirt is too big. You look at him. "What?"

He shakes his head, turning to the fire. "Nothing."

You blush and look at the fire, too.

////

"Hey," Josh says, coming to stand beside you. You're on watch, looking out over the cliffs at the beautiful landscape.

You've been free for about two weeks now, and Josh has been helping you with everything.

"Hey," you reply, looking back at him. You don't know what you'd rather look at - him or the view before you.

His hood and his mask are both down and there's a slight breeze blowing his messy hair. Not to mention his face, which you've been secretly staring at since you got here - at opportune times, of course. You don't mean to. It just happens sometimes.

You'd be staring right now if he didn't start talking again and snap you out of it. "Settling in okay?"

"Yeah," you nod, tearing your eyes away from him and looking back at the landscape. "Thanks to you."

He blushes and shrugs, looking down. "It's no problem, really. Everyone's gotta help out new escapees."

"Well, thanks anyway," you reply. "As much as I hate Dema, the change was scary - the freedom. You made it less scary. I owe you."

"You don't owe me anything."

"Yeah, I do." You look at him again. He's looking out at the cliffs in front of you. "So if you ever need anything, just let me know."

He chuckles lightly. "Will do." It goes silent again for about ten minutes, both of you thinking and looking out at the cliffs. Then, Josh speaks. "Actually there is something..."

You look back at him again. "Yeah?"

"It-It's not really a favor, I guess, but..." He goes quiet for a good minute. "... I wanted to ask if I could, uh... if I could kiss you?" You're about to reply, but he hurriedly cuts you off. "I-I mean, it's just, I've liked you since we first met, really, and I didn't know how to tell you, so... yeah."

You grin, which he takes as a good sign. "I've liked you since we first met, too."

"So...?"

In one motion, you step closer to him and wrap your arms around his neck. He leans in, smiling into the kiss. His arms wrap around your waist as he pulls you closer. His lips are chapped, but so are yours and neither of you could care less. You're sure could stay like this forever, but have to you pull away for air. "Wow."

He's still smiling. "Does that mean I can kiss you again?"

Tyler -
You hate it here.

It used to be different.

It used to feel different.

But you grew up.

When you were little, when you'd walk the streets, you'd look up at the sky. That's all you could see of the world outside; the surrounding walls are too high.

You used to like those walls. You were afraid of what was on the other side of them.

Now you're afraid of what's on the inside.

In Dema.

You've heard about the other Bishops - the ones that use fear to control their region. Keons is different. He isn't friendly, but he doesn't scare you. Not really.

Maybe you're going crazy from the monotony of it all.

Everything looks the same. You do the same thing every day. Over and over. It used to be comforting, but now it's not. You want to do something else.

You want to escape.

You're not the only one.

Tyler Joseph lives in Keons' region, too. You've seen him before. You never spoke to each other, but you've always wanted to.

Neither of you know that you want the same thing.

Then, one night, you sneak out after curfew. To see if you could climb the wall.

You thought he was a watcher at first until you saw his face through the darkness.

"Hello?" you whispered, walking towards him. He was pale; he'd thought you were a watcher, too.

"Y/N?" he asks, recognizing you. "What are you doing out here?"

You're a little shocked that he knows your name, but you gloss over it. "What are you doing out here?"

"Can't sleep."

You can tell it's a lie; no one would risk getting caught outside after curfew just because they couldn't sleep.

You play along anyway. "Why? Nightmares?"

He hesitates. "Something like that... What about you?"

You shrug. "I'm planning an escape." You rationalize that if he isn't doing the same thing and wants to rat on you to somebody, he can't; he'll have to explain the whole story. He's breaking the same rule you're breaking right now.

His eyes widen. "Really?"

You nod, looking up at the wall. "Yeah. I was thinking maybe I could try to climb the wall."

Tyler shakes his head. "No, that'll never work; it's too high. We gotta find another way."

"We?" you ask, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah," he replies as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm not out here because I can't sleep. I thought you'd figured that out instantly."

"I did. It was a horrible lie."

"I know."

"Thankfully, I'm better at lying than you are, so that might be useful to our escape plan."

Tyler smiles. "It might be."

////

For the next month, you and Tyler met in secret, discussing a plan to escape. And throughout the month, you've realized that you're starting to like him. A lot.

"We gotta wear yellow," he says. "The watchers can't see yellow."

You're in your room, talking quietly; it's less risky than going outside. You're on your bed, and he's in the floor even though you told him he could sit with you.

You get off the bed and move to your closet, where Tyler would hide should anyone come knocking. You open it. "I don't have anything yellow."

Tyler chews on his lip, thinking, and it makes you forget why he's there in the first place - the plan, the future escape from the horrible life you're currently living. Then, he looks up at you. "We'll figure something out. We have to."

You're snapped out of it, sadly. You nod. "Yeah... Yeah, you're right."

He sighs and stands. "I'm gonna head back to my room now. The clothes and pillows stuffed under my blankets won't fool someone at a second glance." He starts to go, but you grab his arm, stopping him. He turns and waits for you to say something, but you don't. "Yeah?"

Your face turns red and you struggle for something to say, then realize you're still holding his arm and let go. "I, uh, I-I... never mind."

Tyler cocks an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

You nod. "Y-Yeah. Sorry."

He turns away from the door to face you. "Is it the plan?"

"No. It's fine. I don't... I'm just tired."

"If you're worried about something-"

"I'm not," you assure him. "I'm fine." You didn't even think when you did that, and now you regret it.

He still doesn't believe you. "I thought you were good at lying?" His tone is teasing.

You shrug a little, looking at the floor. "Not when I'm lying to you..."

He becomes concerned. "Then what's wrong?"

"It's... It's nothing, I promise. It's not important."

"It sure seems like it's important."

You stop and think about spilling, but realize you can't; it could make things awkward between you. You're already committing the highest form of treason just planning this escape. Making this awkward now would absolutely suck. You sigh. "If you're gonna go, you should probably go now..."

He turns to go, resigned to the fact that you're not going to tell him. Then, he stops.

You said 'if'. Any other time he would've dismissed it, but considering what just happened...

"Were you gonna ask me to...?"

"Stay?" you finish quietly.

He can't help but smile. "I'd love to, Y/N. I really would. But I have to be in bed before sunrise when they wake us up."

You nod. "Right... So, see you tomorrow?"

He hesitates, then kisses you softly and quickly. For the second his lips are on yours, all you can think about is how soft they are and how much you want to never pull away. But he does. "See you tomorrow."

With that, he walks out the door.

////

You spend the next few nights kissing and planning your escape. The plan is ready - your clothes have yellow tape on them, and you know when and where you're running. You're gonna try to find the Banditos in Trench, if they even exist.

If not, you have each other.

////

"Y/N!" Tyler shouts. You're running from Dema and you just tripped over the rocky terrain. Tyler comes back and helps you up and you keep running. For what, you're not sure.

After ten more minutes of running, you look back and see nothing but Dema fading in the distance. You turn back around and slow to a jog, breathing hard.

You start walking after ten minutes of that, eventually laying down to rest at nightfall. It's freezing out here, and you and Tyler hold each other for warmth.

"We'll have to find Trench soon or we'll die," you whisper. You have no food and only the cold water on the ground to drink.

"We'll find it," Tyler says, kissing your forehead. "I know we will."

The next morning, you get up and start walking. About ten minutes later, they appear on the cliffs. Hundreds of them.

Banditos.

You hear something in the distance. Something's coming.

"A Bishop," you whisper, fear washing over you. You can't go back. Not now.

Tyler looks over at you. "Go. Hide. I'll run, get him to chase me father down so you can get away."

"But-"

"Go. I'll find you."

"Tyler-"

"Go."

You hear the sound of horse's hooves hitting the ground getting closer and closer, and Tyler's not letting up. Reluctantly, you find a cave and run inside. You hear shuffling and stop, peering into the darkness. You hear more noises, but see nothing.

It's too late to find a different hiding spot.

You see the Bishop approaching Tyler, hands outstretched. Tyler's just standing there. You're at the mouth of the cave, watching nervously. "Fight back," you whisper as the Bishop makes six back marks on Tyler neck, three on each side. "Fight back."

He follows him, and you're about to run after him when the Banditos start throwing yellow pedals, causing the horse to freak and the Bishop to look up nervously. Then, Tyler starts running. You hear him shout. "Y/N, run!"

You sprint out of the cave toward the cliffs as Tyler falls to the ground. The Bishop looks at you and you hide amongst the rocks at the base of the cliff.

The Bishop takes Tyler, who's unconscious on the ground, a yellow flower on his chest. He's looking up at the cliff, and you assume there's still Banditos up there.

You try to figure out how to save Tyler. The Bishops are powerful - especially this one.

You've never seen a Bishop do that before.

You look back at the cave you were hiding in before and see someone creeping outside of it. Someone you think you recognize, but you're not sure.

You have no idea what you're gonna do.