CATEGORY: Fluff, holidays
FEATURING: loner!Tyler and spaceboy!Josh
TRIGGER WARNINGS: None, pure fluff
PROMPT: Tyler's mom makes him give valentines to everyone in his class.
WORDS: Approximately 2,860

I know I'll probably get some hate for this, but I'm not a huge fan of holidays.

I mean, the holiday itself is okay, but getting together with big groups of family or friends? Forget it. I've always been a bit of a loner. I do have one good friend at school, Brendon, and sometimes when we hang out he brings along whoever he's dating. But big groups of people are a no. I always feel like an outsider, like I don't belong.

My least favorite holiday, of all of them, is Valentine's Day. I always see everybody with their sweethearts, and it kind of hurts to see, because I've never had a girlfriend or boyfriend before. It's not that I'm opposed to dating or anything. I'm just confused.

I'm wasn't sure about the proper term for my sexuality those days, but I do know that I like boys more than I like girls. I was pretty sure my family wasn't homophobic, but I hadn't told them about it because I wasn't sure about myself. I wanted to go with them definitive information? I wanted to go to tehm and say "this is what I am", not "I think I might be this but I'm not sure". 

So that's why, at age fifteen, I'd still never kissed anybody, much less been on a date.

The day before Valentine's Day, my mom knocked on my door. I had finished my homework and was watching some various people on YouTube do covers of my favorite songs.

"Come in," I said, pausing my video.

My mom came in the room. She had a paper bag in her arms. "Have you finished your homework yet?"

I nodded. I was a pretty good student; I got mostly A's on my report card, like my siblings Zack, Jay, and Madison. My parents were proud of all of us, and liked checking in now and then to make sure we weren't having any trouble with our work.

"Are you busy?" she asked. As watching the playlist I'd assembled wasn't extremely important, I shook my head.

Mom beamed. "Good. Come on out into the kitchen with me, we're doing a family project."

My mom was a lover of family projects. They usually involved me and my siblings, led by mom, doing some sort of 'community project'. She tried to get our dad into it when he wasn't working, but he was usually able to come up with some sort of reasonable excuse. 

Mom liked to say that the projects helped us to "bond as a family" and "make our community better". Sometimes the projects were fun, like the time we sold lemonade to raise money for a local charity. Sometimes, they were less fun, like the time she made us perform a very not funny comedy skit at an old folk's home. I still have flashbacks.

"What are we doing?" I asked Mom as she led me downstairs to join my siblings, who were already gathered at the kitchen table.

Mom set the paper bag on the table and clasped her hands together as I took a seat next to Zack. "You guys are all going to make valentines for your homeroom classes!"

Zack, Jay and I all groaned. Madison cheered, seemingly the only one who was actually excited.

"Come on," Mom chided, "it's not that bad. When I was a kid, we couldn't afford to do stuff like this. You're lucky. You'll get to meet all the people in your class, and you might make some friends."

I had the feeling that this was directed to me. We'd just moved to Columbus a few weeks ago for my dad's job, and I, for one, was still not properly oriented. I did have Brendon, but he was more of a hanging-out-on-the-weekends friend than a best friend. Zack and Jay, I think, had friends on the basketball team, but I had been reluctant to join the team after the move, missing my team back home and still feeling a strong loyalty to them. I didn't know if Maddie had any friends or not yet, but she was really outgoing, so it was likely that she had at least one good friend.

As much as my brothers and I didn't want to, there wasn't any way we could get out of it, so we all started making the valentines. Jay and Zack were just plastering stickers on theirs, not putting too much effort into them. Maddie used up half the bottle of glitter glue on her first valentine, and while Mom scolded her about not wasting it, I cut out some paper hearts.

I didn't want to make my valentines seem too lovey-dovey, since I barely knew anyone in my homeroom, except Brendon of course. I used heart-shaped cards, and valentine-type colors, but I kept the messages as platonic as I could.

After almost two hours, I had finished all the valentines for my class. After putting them in a paper bag to take to school tomorrow, I went back up to my room to watch the rest of those song covers.

The next day, Valentine's Day, I woke up with my face on my keyboard. I apparently had fallen asleep last night midway through watching those covers. Whoops.

My laptop's battery had died, so I put it on my desk and plugged it in so it could charge. After that, I got dressed for my day at school, putting on a pair of dark jeans, and a Beatles t-shirt Brendon gave me. I put on my favorite black hoodie after that, and some socks and sneakers.

I headed downstairs to breakfast. My family was already assembled at the kitchen table; my siblings were eating Eggo waffles, and my parents were having toast. My father took long, slow sips from a cup of coffee.

My mom looked up from her toast. "Zack, what was it I asked you to remind me about today?"

Zack rolled his eyes. Our mother was always forgetting things. "You asked me to remind you to call Jenna."

"Oh, that's right." She got up from the table and picked up her phone from the counter by the fridge.

"Why are you calling Jenna?" I asked, already suspecting why.

"Your father and I are going on a date tonight, and Jenna's going to babysit you," Mom said as she dialed Jenna's number.

I groaned. I didn't like Jenna very much; she was too perky and optimistic for my taste. "Mom, I'm fifteen! I'm old enough to watch the others."

"Hey!" Zack and Jay simultaneously protested. Maddie's mouth was too full of waffles for her to say anything.

"Honey, you know we're reluctant to leave you alone so long," she scolded as she put the phone up to her ear and waited for Jenna to pick up. "Jenna's twenty, she's a responsible adult. Besides, she's very nice and you all like spending time with her."

This was only partially true. I preferred to spend my time alone in my room, watching videos or reading, while Jenna was here. She'd babysat us only once since we'd moved her, and she'd tried to convince me to come downstairs with the rest of my siblings to watch a movie, but I'd told her I was more of a loner. She seemed to have understood, and let me be. 

As far as I knew, my siblings like Jenna enough: Madison loved having another girl in the house, and she liked basketball, so Jay liked her too. I was pretty sure, also, that Zack had a crush on her.

As Mom and Jenna worked out the details, I finished my cereal and put the bowl in the sink. I waved a quick goodbye to my family, who was still preoccupied with food, and I headed out the door to wait for my bust. Dad would take Zack and Jay to their school on the way to work, and Mom would take Maddie to her school after that.

I thought I was going to get away without having to take my valentines, but at the last second, just before I got on the bus, Mom ran down the sidewalk with my paper bag. "Sweetie, you forgot your valentines!"

Laughter erupted from the other students on the bus, and I put my head in my hands as Mom gave me the paper bag full of valentines. "There you go."

"Thanks, Mom," I said in the most sarcastic tone I could get away with.

"Mhm." She kissed my cheek. Great. Nobody at school would ever forget this. "Have a good day at school, I love you."

Too embarrassed to reply, I took the paper bag and hopped on the bus. Snickers were stull rising up from the rows of seats. I sat in the back of the bus, next to Brendon, who was laughing his ass off.

"I-I'm s-sorry dude," he managed, laughing so hard that he had trouble speaking, "but that was GOLD."

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled, annoyed at my Mom, but not mad at my friend.

After Brendon was finally able to stop laughing, he nudged the paper bag at my feet. "So, valentines, huh?" 

"Yeah. She made all of us make some for our homeroom classes." Brendon Urie knew all about our family projects, and he clicked his tongue sympathetically. "At least you got to make one for that special sweetheart of yours, eh?"

I shrugged. "I don't have a 'special sweetheart', Brendon."

"Suuuuuuuuuuure you don't," he teased, grinning.

"I really don't. I mean, I've only been here a few weeks. I barely know anybody."

"So? I met Dallon the day he moved to the neighborhood, and four days later we were kissing in the janitor's closet." Brendon sighed.

"Gross." I stuck out my tongue in fake disgust. "Say, speaking of Dallon, are you guys doing anything for Valentine's Day?" Dallon and Brendon had been dating for two months, after Brendon had broken up with Ryan, who he'd probably dated and broken up with a thousand times.

"Yup," Brendon said with a half shrug.

"Do I want to know what you're doing?"

Brendon grinned again. "Probably not."

I fake gagged. "Even grosser."

After a few minutes, our conversations dwindled as Brendon started texting Dallon, and I got lost in my thoughts.

I knew it was embarrassing, having to carry in that bag of valentines. If the bag had been plain, it would have been pretty odd, but not shameful. Unfortunately, Madison had drawn a big, messy heart on each side of the bag, in red marker. In my head, the people in the halls stared. Some pointed. A few laughed.

I didn't think anything could make up for the embarrassing trial that was carrying in and doling out those valentines.

I headed into homeroom. A few people had valentines sitting on their desks already. Our teacher had encouraged us to give everyone a valentine, as Mom had made me and my siblings do, although it wasn't mandatory.

The room was empty, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Having someone I barely knew read my valentine would be scary enough, but giving someone their valentine personally was much worse.

I went around the desks, putting a valentine on each desk at random, except for Brendon's. I'd drawn my only friend a caricature on his valentine: Brendon's face, except with an extremely large forehead. It was a running joke between us.

As I put a valentine on one of the desks in the third row, I passed my desk. Not a single valentine sat there, but that was okay. I hadn't really expected or wanted one, so I didn't feel disappointed.

I continued onward from the third row, putting valentines on the desks of the second row. Just as I did, the door to the classroom swung open on its creaky hinges.

I stood there, frozen in terror, a valentine in my hand as the person entered the room. Swallowing, I turned my head to see who it was.

A boy walked down the row, a galaxy-themed backpack slung over his shoulder. His hair was a dark shade of blue, like the sky just after the sun has set. He had big brown eyes, a nose ring, and ear gauges. He wore a black t-shirt with a white spaceship on it, with the words 'I want to believe' in big white letters, as well as a pair of jeans and some dark purple converse sneakers. A dark gray sweatshirt hung off his shoulders.

I recognized the stranger by his unusual hair color; he sat directly in front of me in class. It was hard for me to focus on the teacher sometimes, because my eyes would always drift to his brightly-colored hair. It was distracting.

To make matters worse, the boy was approaching me. He stopped at the desk I was putting the valentine on. "Um...hi..."

I swallowed again. "Hello." Nervously, I held out my hand to the boy, with the valentine still in it. "Um. This is for you."

The boy just stared at me. Then he took the valentine. It had a cheesy bumblebee sticker on it, with the words 'bee mine' on it in loopy black letters.

"Thanks," the boy said quietly, looking at the valentine and putting it on his desk. He looked as awkward as I felt.

"My mom made me give them to everyone in the class," I blurted without even thinking about it. Crap, now he's going to think I hate him.

The blue-haired boy didn't seem to take offense, though. In fact, a relieved look passed over his face. He put his backpack on the desk and took out a folded plastic bag from one of the pockets. Opening up the bag, he pulled out a valentine.

"My mom made me bring valentines for everybody, too."

Relief filled me. "So I'm not the only one, then?"

The boy laughed, and I felt better quickly. He had a nice laugh. "Guess not. Why'd your mom make you?"

"One of our 'family projects'," I said, using air quotes. "How about you?"

"My mom's made me and my siblings do it every year since we were old enough to manage a glue stick. She really loves Valentine's Day." The boy pulled more valentines out of his bag, and started walking around, putting them on desks. I continued putting out my valentines as he kept talking. "You sit one row behind me, right?"

I nodded as he looked up. "Yeah." I lowered my voice a bit, mumbling. "I like your hair."

The boy brightened. "Thanks! I just dyed it a couple of weeks ago. It was purple before that."

I finished putting out my final few valentines, and sat at my desk. "That's really cool."

"Yeah." The boy got to my row, and shyly held out a valentine for me. "Um. Here."

I blushed. Why was I acting like this? "Thanks." I put the valentine in my bag to look at later; now I could tell Brendon I had gotten one from someone besides him.

After the boy with the blue hair had put out all his valentines, he picked up the ones on his desk. There were at least three, not including mine.

"Popular with the girls?" I blurted. I mentally scolded myself for asking such a personal question.

"Sort of. A few girls like me I think, but." The boy shrugged. "I'm gay, actually."

"Oh," I said quietly. A brief silence filled the classroom.

The boy hesitated before talking again. "That's okay, right?"

"Of course!" I rushed. "My best friend's bisexual, and I'm not straight, either."

The boy grinned, seemingly happy that I wasn't a homophobic asshole. He rubbed the back of his neck, a bit awkwardly. "What are you, then? I mean, if it's okay for me to ask," he added quickly.

I wasn't sure what to say. I didn't really know what I was for sure, so I shrugged. "Don't know yet."

The boy nodded, satisfied with my answer. He slung his backpack over his shoulder. "That's tough."

I nodded, lowering my head a bit. It was tough, he was right. It was tough not knowing who you were. It was tough not knowing if you'd be accepted for being yourself, too.

The blue-haired boy seemed to understand that I was a bit upset about it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to--"

"No, no, it's okay," I promised. "It just kind of hits me sometimes, you know?"

"Yeah." The boy turned, as if he was about to leave the classroom, but then he stopped, and turned back to me. He pulled a marker out of his back pocket and reached out, grabbing my arm. I was so surprised that I didn't even have time to respond as he pulled up the sleeve of my shirt and wrote down a phone number directly on my arm. "Text me if you ever need anything, okay?"

I blinked, surprised, but not displeased. "Thank you." The boy turned to leave again, opening the classroom door as I pulled my phone out of my back pocket to type his number into my contacts.

"Wait!" I said hurriedly, remembering. The boy stopped. 

"What's your name?"

He smiled at me. "My name's Joshua, but you can call me Josh."