Characters: sibling!Tyler Joseph, family friend!Josh Dun

Warnings: Blood, mentions of violence & bullying, description of injury (not very graphic), profanity, general angst

Word Count: 3213

Request: Can I get a Tyler sister fic where something happened (idk what) but josh( basically your other brother) saved you from it and you try to pretend it didn't happen then Tyler finds out and angst and sibling fluff at the end please -Anonymous

Author's Note: This is also a highschool!AU. I considered breaking this up into two parts, but didn't want to make you wait a week for part two, so instead you get a super long one shot this week! I hope you enjoy it :)

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You winced as you brought a hand to your cheek, gently feeling around for the source of the pain. Your fingers eventually met raw skin, sending a new jolt of pain through your face. When you pulled your fingers back, there was blood smeared on your fingertips.

You bit back a sob as you pulled your knees to your chest, revealing a number of new sore spots. Echoes of the insults the girls had thrown at you rattled around your mind, sending a fresh wave of tears down your cheeks, making the scratches sting more. Your stuff was still scattered across the pavement, now mostly crumpled or ripped. At least the wind had died down from earlier in the day, you didn't have the energy to chase your homework around the field.

"Y/N! Y/N!"

Your head flicked up, looking for the source of the noise. Already, you were scrambling to a standing position and looking for somewhere to hide in case the girls had decided to come back for a second round. The scratches and bruises they had already given you were going to be hard enough to explain to your family as it was.

The figure rounded the corner before you had a chance to find a spot to hide. His mess of brown hair was a welcome sight and you nearly collapsed from relief. He came running towards you as soon as he spotted you standing in the middle of all your strewn papers.

"Y/N, there you are," he huffed, reaching forward to grab your arms. "I heard some girls talking about beating someone up and thought I caught the end of your name. Are you ok? Is that blood on your cheek?"

You nodded sheepishly, looking up at him so that he could see the scratches on your face. He was the only one you had told about the girls who had been tormenting you for the last few months, mostly because he was the only one you trusted enough to not escalate the problem.

"What happened?"

"I-It was those girls. I was walking home and I had headphones in so I didn't hear them coming a-and they cornered me and beat me up," you choked out between sobs. "I couldn't do anything, Josh. I was terrified so I just laid there and- I can't go to school tomorrow. Not after this."

"Hey, come here."

Josh pulled you into his chest. You wrapped your arms around his middle, allowing your body to relax completely for the first time all day. It was safe as long as he was around, Josh would be able to protect you.

"Do you need anything?" he asked.

"I just want to go home."

"I'll drive you."

Together, you and Josh gathered up all your school stuff and put it back into your backpack. Josh offered to carry it for you and used his free arm to wrap around your shoulders. You were glad he did it, though you would never say that out loud. It made you feel protected.

"Let me move the stuff out of the front seat, hold on."

You glanced around the parking lot while Josh leaned over the driver's side and tossed his own bag and jacket out of the way so that you could sit. As soon as the stuff was out of the way, you slid into the car and locked the door behind you. Even with Josh next to you, you weren't running any risks.

"Go ahead and pick whatever music you want to listen to. There should also be some napkins in there, if you want to get the blood off your face."

"Thanks, Josh."

He nodded and pulled out of the parking lot. You grabbed a napkin out of the glovebox and pulled down the visor so that you could use the little mirror to clean your face. It also provided you with the first clear look at your face. A couple bruises were already beginning to form where you had been hit, right around your eye and cheekbone. Thankfully, you had been able to get your arms up to cover your face before they landed too many hits, but it hadn't been enough to stop you from scraping up your cheek when they pushed you to the pavement.

"This is going to be impossible to explain to my family," you sighed, lightly dabbing at a couple beads of blood on your cheek.

"Why don't you tell them the truth?"

"Are you kidding? My mom would flip and call the school and that won't do anything aside from making the entire situation worse."

"You can always transfer. Or do online school. You can't keep letting yourself get beat up like this, Y/N. It's dangerous. You need to put a stop to it before it escalates more."

"You think I don't know that?" you snapped, flipping the visor back up. "It's not like I want to practically sprint home every day to avoid getting verbally assaulted or beat up."

"Why don't you wait at Tyler's basketball practices?"

"Tyler said the coach wouldn't let me. Besides, what's to stop the girls from showing up at practices?"

"There's people there."

"There's people walking home, too."

"Then let me drive you home every day," Josh suggested.

"It's out of the way for you."

"I would rather drive a little extra every day than learn you're in the hospital because some girls decided to take things a little too far. You're like a sister to me too, you know."

"Maybe," you shrugged, leaning forward to grab Josh's CD case. "I'll just keep a better eye out next time and not wear headphones."

"Y/N..."

"I'm done talking about this," you said, never letting your eyes leave the CDs.

"Ok."

You eventually found something you wanted to listen to and slid it into Josh's radio. It made familiar mechanical clicking sounds before the CD started to play.

"Good choice."

"Thanks," you said, zipping the case back up and stuffing it into Josh's messy glovebox. "Hey, why were you at school late today, anyway?"

"I had to talk to one of my teachers about a project. I was about to leave when I saw those girls hightailing it out from behind the school, so I nonchalantly walked past them, heard your name and them talking about beating someone up, and then came running."

"Oh, well, thank you. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come and gotten me."

"I'm always going to look out for you, Y/N. And I know Tyler would do the same."

"Right."

The rest of the car ride, which was hardly more than a few minutes, was quiet. Once Josh pulled up outside your house, you twisted back - a bit uncomfortably, you might add - to grab your backpack and pull your house keys out of it. Your siblings, aside from Tyler, would most likely already be home, but it was your goal to get inside and upstairs without being seen by any of them.

"Thanks for giving me a ride home, Josh," you said, already halfway out the door.

"No problem. And hey, Y/N?"

"Yeah?"

"Please talk to Tyler about what happened."

"Ok," you answered, knowing it was the only way to get him off your case.

"It's going to be fine."

"I know."

Josh smiled as you closed the door and walked inside. He waited until you had opened the front door before driving off, just to make sure you got inside safe.

Your entire body tensed as you stood just inside the door, not quite closing it yet. You listened carefully, trying to figure out where exactly each member of your family was in the house. From the sounds of it, Maddy was sitting at the kitchen table doing homework and your brothers were up in the den playing video games, like usual. You closed the door, making sure to lock it behind you, and then ran upstairs and directly into the bathroom.

"Hello?" Zack called.

"Hey, Zack!" you answered, glancing at the door to make sure it was locked.

"Oh, it's you, Y/N! I didn't know what was happening because I heard the door close and then someone went sprinting up the stairs."

"It was just me! I drank a ton of water during last period and had to pee really bad," you said, hoping it was a convincing lie.

"You're home late!"

"I ran into Josh after school and we talked for awhile! He gave me a ride home, too."

"Ok!"

You waited to see if Zack would say anything else, but you only heard their video games start back up again. Your shoulders dropped a little and you immediately opened the medicine cabinet, grabbing at whatever supplies you thought you might need. By the time you were done, you had a small assortment of tools on the counter in front of you to deal with your injuries.

You lost track of how long you were in the bathroom, pouring peroxide onto your cuts and examining your body for new bruises. Eventually, everything that needed to be attended to was and all of the supplies were back in the cabinet, sitting exactly as you had found them. You pulled your dirty shirt back on, grabbed your backpack, and quickly shuffled out of the bathroom and down the hall to your room.

Once in the safety of your room, you once again stripped out of your clothes and pulled on an oversized sweatshirt that you had stolen from one of your brothers. It hung well past your hands and the hood was oversized, making it harder to get a clear look at your face. You would have to cover the marks with concealer before you were called downstairs for dinner, but you wanted to try and get some of the swelling down before you did that. Your torn jeans were also traded out for a pair of comfy leggings that were less stiff when you tried to move around in them. The dirty clothes ended up stuffed in the back of your closet where your mom wouldn't accidentally end up finding them

You were halfway out of your room to make your quick trip to the kitchen when you heard the front door open. Whoever it was dropped a ton of stuff next to the stairs with a thud and swung the front door closed. It was loud, making you jump a little.

"I'm home!" they called.

Tyler.

You immediately dove back into your room and shut the door before he could come upstairs. He would know something was up immediately and start asking a million questions, all of which you wouldn't want to answer. Thankfully, after a short stop in his room, you heard him walk into the bathroom and start up the shower. You took this as your opportunity to run downstairs and grab a bag of frozen peas from the freezer.

"What are you doing?" Maddy asked. You had almost forgotten she was at the kitchen table.

"Getting a snack," you said, pulling your hood a little further over your face as you looked for the peas.

"From the freezer?"

"Mmmhmm."

"That's weird."

"I was just seeing what my options were."

You quickly glanced at Maddy to see if she was still looking at you. She had turned back to her homework, so you grabbed the peas and stuffed them into the pocket of your sweatshirt where they would be less visible. For added effect, you walked over to the snack cupboard and grabbed a packet of goldfish.

You walked as fast as you could without arousing suspicion all the way back to your room and shut the door again. The packet of peas was a relief on your swollen cheek, if not a bit cold. Not wanting to keep your arm up to hold the vegetables on your cheek, you walked over to your bed and leaned back so that gravity would keep them in place.

You were scrolling through Tumblr, trying your best to ignore the combination of physical and psychological discomfort from your day, when there was a knock on your door. Panic flooded through you and you immediately rolled onto your side with your back to the door, hiding your face from the view of whoever had come to see you.

"What?" you asked, trying your best to sound annoyed.

"Can I come in?" Tyler asked.

"Why?"

"I need to talk to you about something."

You didn't like the sound of that.

"About what?"

"I don't know, but Josh told me I should come talk to you once I got home."

"Dammit," you muttered. "No, you can't come in."

"Why not?" Tyler asked. His tone had become more defensive.

"Because I said so."

"Alright, you leave me no choice."

You sat up at the sound of your door opening, temporarily forgetting why you had tried to stop him in the first place. Tyler closed the door behind him and turned to face you; what little happiness he had on his face was gone in an instant. As soon as you realized why he was making that face, you scrambled to cover your injuries with your hand, as if it would do anything.

"Who did that to you?"

"Nobody. I fell."

"Don't bullshit me, Y/N, I've fallen and been shoved and tossed around in basketball and I've never had an injury that bad. Someone deliberately did that to you."

"No, they didn't. I fell on the pavement when I was walking home. It isn't a big deal."

Tyler crossed the room and grabbed your wrist, pulling it away from your face. You knew there was no point in fighting him, wrestling matches from your childhood taught you that Tyler could move your arm if he really wanted to. You might as well give in while his touch was still semi-gentle.

"I'm not going to ask again: who did this to you?"

"Just some girls in my grade," you said, unable to meet his eyes. "Ty, I swear it isn't a big deal."

"Isn't a big deal? Y/N, you have a black eye coming in and scrapes all across your cheek, and that's just what's visible. They attacked you. This is a huge deal."

"I don't want it to be," you said, already feeling the tears coming. "I just want to be left alone. That's all."

"Hey, hold on." Tyler bent down so that he could make eye contact with you. "Listen, I'm not going to contact anyone about this if you don't want me to, but we need to figure out how to stop this. I won't sit idly by while people beat you up."

You wrenched your arm out of Tyler's grasp and buried your face in your hands. They were shaking from the effort of holding in sobs so as to not alert the rest of your family that something serious was going on.

"I just want it to stop, Ty," you repeated. "I want it all to stop."

Tyler stood up and took a seat on the edge of your bed next to you. Carefully, he scooted closer and wrapped an arm around you.

"Is that ok?"

"Can you move your hand down a little? You're on a bruise."

Tyler did as you asked, once again checking that it was ok. You nodded.

"Can you run me through what happened?" His tone had become gentle again.

You carefully described what had happened to Tyler, from leaving school to Josh finding you and taking you home. It took awhile because you kept pausing to take deep breaths and calm yourself down enough to keep talking, but you eventually made it through the entirety of the story. Tyler held you close the whole time, waiting patiently whenever you needed a break.

"This isn't the first time they've been mean to you?"

"It was the first time they got physical, but they've had it out for me since the beginning of the year."

"Do you know why?"

"They just think I'm weird," you shrugged.

"What?"

"They think I'm weird. I don't know why."

"Well, you're not weird, Y/N. In fact, you're one of the coolest people that I know and I'm glad you're my sister. We're going to get something figured out about this whole situation, ok?"

"I'll talk to Mom and Dad about it soon. I just don't want them to contact the school and make things worse."

"I'll back you up and make sure they don't."

"Also how am I going to explain this?" you asked, gesturing to the bruises that were still on your face.

That reminded you to grab your bag of peas and hold it to your face again. Tyler laughed a little as you did so.

"Easy. We were playing basketball in the driveway and I threw the ball to you, but it hit your face and gave you a black eye."

"And the scratches?"

"You fell when I was trying to get you inside to ice the bruise. It was a rough game for you," he laughed.

"Way to make me sound like a klutz," you joined his laughter, reaching out to shove at his shoulder.

"Hey, it'll get Mom and Dad off your case."

"I suppose."

"And for real, Y/N, I'm going to look out for you, ok? Josh will too. If you ever need us at school because you're worried something is going to happen, don't hesitate to come find us. Neither of us want you to get hurt and we can both be intimidating."

"Josh, maybe. I'm not so sure about you," you giggled.

"Hey, I'm trying to be nice," Tyler smiled, reaching forward and pulling you into his chest. One of his hands reached up to ruffle at your hair, though it was difficult for him when your head was covered by a hoodie. "Don't ruin the moment."

"Thanks, Tyler. It really does mean a lot. Josh said he can start giving me rides home when you have practice, so I think I might take him up on that offer."

"Good idea."

Tyler released you from his grip. You rolled your shoulders, stretching out a few places that were steadily growing more sore.

"We have your back, Y/N. You aren't going to deal with this alone."

"I know. Sorry I took so long to tell you what was going on."

"It's ok." He reached out and rested a hand on your back. "It's hard to talk about, I get it."

"Yeah."

There was a slight pause as you both sat on your bed. Tyler was the first to break the silence.

"Mom needs those peas for dinner, you know."

"Well I'm going to keep using them until she comes up here and demands them from me."

"Good plan," Tyler said sarcastically. "Now what do you say we go play some video games while you ice your eye?"

"I think that sounds like an actual good plan."

Tyler held a hand out to you and helped you stand up. You fell into step with him and allowed yourself a small smile. It was a nice feeling, knowing that someone out there had your back.