PROMPT: Tyler catches Josh, a photography student, taking pictures of him in the park.
FEATURING: nerd!Tyler and photographer!Josh
CATEGORY: Flufffffffffffffffffffffffff
WARNINGS: None, all fluff :D
Title from the Imagine Dragons song Polaroid

The slightly chilly breeze blew through the trees, sending a small shiver up Tyler Joseph's spine. He was walking through the park, which was down the block from his apartment.

He paused at a wooden bench beneath the cover of a large evergreen tree. He sat lightly on the bench and opened the book in his hands.

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.

Tyler thought that was quite an interesting way to start a book.

He read onward. This was his daily pleasure: after school, he would take a book into the park and read. He read lots of books, but his favorites were the classics, stories by authors such as Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and so on. Nearly every afternoon, he read their tales, and enjoyed getting lost in them.

Today, however, something stirred Tyler from his book. He turned his head to see a boy with a Polaroid camera sitting on the other end of the bench.

The stranger had dark, curly brown hair, and wore a black jacket over a red and black plaid button-up. He also wore a pair of black skinny jeans and black and red sneakers. He was holding the camera in front of his face, pointed at Tyler, but he could still see his black ear gauges and nose ring. He looked slightly familiar, but Tyler was pretty sure he didn't know him.

Looking almost exasperated, the boy pulled his camera away from his face. "Go back to your book, I'm not bothering you. I just want to take your picture."

Tyler furrowed his brow. "What for?"

"You look nice."

Tyler shook his head. "Not really."

"Well, I think you look nice."

This made Tyler smile a little, and he turned his head away again, eyes lowered shyly to the ground.

He heard a click as the boy took a photo with his camera. "Perfect."

Realizing he had been tricked, Tyler turned back to the boy and frowned. "Seriously."

"Seriously  what?"

"Seriously, why are you taking pictures of me?"

"Can't a guy just take pictures of a cute stranger in the middle of the park?" the boy joked. Tyler didn't laugh.

"Okay, fine. I'm a photography student. My name's Joshua, by the way. I go by Josh though." Josh squinted a little bit as he looked at Tyler. The darker-haired boy didn't want to admit it, but his heart fluttered when he did that. "I think I recognize you from art school. Tyler, right?"

"Mhm." Tyler turned back to his book, and Josh took another photo of him.

Feeling a bit frustrated, Tyler turned back to him. "Do you mind?"

"I'm not trying to bother you, I swear. I actually want you to read your book. It's the angle I'm going for." Josh paused. "What are you reading, anyway?"

Tyler held up his book so the fellow student could see the cover. "A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens."

"It's February."

"So?"

"So A Christmas Carol is a Christmas book, right?"

Tyler put his bookmark in his book to save his place. "It's always the season for reading, Joshua."

"Don't call me that."

"You're taking pictures of me without my permission, Joshua, I'll call you what I want." Tyler glanced at his watch. It was nearly five. Normally, he would have headed home around four. This stranger must have distracted him more than he thought.

He stood, and Josh frowned. "You're leaving?"

"Yeah. I have to eat dinner."

"I could take you to dinner, in exchange for taking all those pictures of you."

Tyler laughed. "I don't know you."

"So what?"

"So you might not be a photography student named Josh, you might be a psycho murderer named Jack who is trying to kill me."

Josh smiled. "You didn't call me Joshua."

Tyler huffed and turned away, a bit embarrassed. "Still, you get my point."

"I promise I'm not a psycho murderer named Jack who is trying to kill you."

"What if you're a psycho murderer named Mark who is trying to kill me?"

Josh sighed, exasperated. "I promise I'm not psycho, I'm not a murderer, I'm not trying to kill you, and my name actually is Josh. Do you want to get dinner with me or not?"

Tyler hesitated, thinking. "What kind of dinner?"

"Anything you want." Josh smiled.

After pausing a moment more, Tyler nodded and took Josh's hand. "Dinner for some photos. You've got yourself a deal, Joshua."

"Don't call me that."

Tyler stuck his tongue out at Josh and pulled him up from the bench. "Take me to Taco Bell, then I'll think about it."

THE END