Tyed - Chapter 49: Chapter 49

Colby's low laugh feels like hope that Tyler doesn't want to take. "Alright," he says. "Do you need a moment?"
"No," Tyler shakes his head, breathing deeply and setting his face. "I'm okay. I'll tell you all about it later." Has he ever mentioned Kali? He doubts it. He's barely mentioned Kevin; he hasn't shared any of his secrets, except by accident.
He supposes he has no reason not to tell him, though.
"If you say so," Colby says, and Tyler meets his eyes, regretfully, since he doesn't want to look away. "In that case, come on."
Tyler takes Colby's hand again, leading him up the stairs, as if he needs to be lead; Tyler doesn't mind, though. It's intended to be romantic.
Huh. Imagine. Romantic.
When did it stop being about sex? Was it ever just about sex?
Tyler remembers now- he was the one begging for sex, in this exact place. Colby had spoken like it was about sex, sometimes, but he'd also been pretty clear about Tyler being different. Maybe Tyler was just the person who fucked the best but...
So distracted, he was getting. Breathe; he was meeting Colby's friends and that felt serious and he needed to be normal.
Normal enough. What did Colby's friends expect him to be? Was he supposed to match up to- to Scarlett?
Tyler wants to ask if Colby's friends are chill or not. He remembers Colby telling Nancy that one of his friends owned the place, so cool, one of them is Rye, aka the guy who first introduced himself to Tyler as Lucifer, so maybe he's not expected to live up to Scarlett. Hopefully.
They reach the top of the stairs after what seems like a very long second. There's the couches, where Tyler first came and spoke to Colby; but those couches are empty now. Colby walks to a door, disguised by paint and dim lights. It seems few people come up here as it is, but apparently they're going somewhere more private than that.
Tyler wonders why, honestly, why aren't they out on the couch? How... "I thought you guys would be up here," Tyler remarks, "because how else did you see me?"
Colby thinks for a moment, with a little laugh. "Oh, I just went to stretch my legs, because of how awfully I lost," he says, as he opens the door.
Tyler doesn't have long enough to process that sentence to its most obvious conclusion, but it becomes clear when he opens the door.
The room is dim, but seemingly not intentionally so; it looks more like the overhead light's been left off, and the table instead is lit by a lamp off to the side. There's six seats around the table, of which two are occupied by people, two sitting out to be easily accessed, and two shoved in under the table, not pulled out recently.
This is a room with a different vibe to everywhere else in here; the walls are bare brick, and there's what looks like a metal workbench against the left wall, on top of which is a rather large selection of plants, in fact, mostly things that Tyler might've seen in his mother's kitchen; parsley, mint, coriander, a few other things Tyler can't name but can recognise. On the right wall there's a cart, and in front of that is a third person, the one person here that Tyler recognises; Rye, pouring whiskey from the cart into different glasses.
The other two people, sitting down, are looking directly at Tyler as he walks in, which is a little disconcerting. They're both men, neither much older than Colby on appearance but almost certainly with a few years on Tyler. One seems tall from here, with brown hair that's long for a man, intense eyes- not too unlike Colby, although he doesn't hold the same striking power of the room that Colby does, at least not to Tyler. He's got a wine-coloured shirt, and it's been a day or two since he's shaved. The other man is a bit shorter, with wiry glasses and short, dark hair streaked with white, in a way that Tyler wants to say is on purpose. Tyler still doesn't know how intimidated to be.
"Hello," the first one remarks, as Rye turns around with two glasses of whiskey in his hands. He looks up at Tyler, shows no change in expression that gives Tyler any clue if he's been recognised, and turns back; Tyler sees three glasses on the tray still. Okay, so they knew someone was coming, at least. "You must be Tyler."
Of course Colby mentioned him already, mentioned he was bringing him here. Why would Tyler think he wouldn't? He just kind of assumed he'd be an afterthought. "I am," Tyler says, honestly thankful he's going to be able to get a bit more drunk. "It's nice to meet you..."
The first man stands up, offering his hand. "Sev," he says, and Tyler grips his hand to shake it- and feels it come off.
Tyler stares at the forearm he's holding for a minute, completely at a loss for how to react, until he realises it's made of plastic and metal and Sev is laughing. Even so, he stares, unsure how to offer the man back his arm.
"I thought you weren't going to do that," says the other man with a sigh. "You scared him."
"I'm not scared so much as- honestly, I've never-" Tyler gets thrown enough that he forgot he's supposed to be intimidated. "Well, I don't know how to react. Do you want your arm back?"
"Yes, thank you," Sev says, and Tyler hands it back to him; he takes it in his right hand and pushes up his sleeve, putting it above his elbow, which he has, although before he reattaches the arm Tyler accidentally took off he doesn't have much below it. He puts his arm back on. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself."
"I think it was funny," Rye says. "The first time."
"So, that's Sev. The closest thing I have to a brother other than my brother," Colby says, "and don't believe the bear attack story."
Sev laughs, low. "It's true, whether you believe me or not."
"And that," Colby says, nodding at the other man, "is Kuro."
Tyler's about to offer some greeting when Kuro says, "we've met," although he offers his hand anyway. Tyler shuts his mouth, and admittedly checks that Kuro's hand is flesh and blood and un-tear-off-able before he shakes it. "How are you, Tyler?"
"I'm good." Tyler answers on instinct, but it's close enough to the truth. He vaguely remembers Kuro's face now that he thinks about it; his meeting was overshadowed by Ash and James, people who knew him in ways he didn't want anyone to know him. "Uh, I guess I don't have to introduce myself." He turns to Colby. "I hope you've only told them good things."
"I haven't told them anything that isn't their business," Colby says, sliding into one of the open chairs, "although they may have asked."
"I can't help my curiosity," Sev says, arms wide. "I'll save you the questions for now, Tyler, considering we just met, but I will be asking if the legends are true at some point. When I'm drunk enough."
"The legends?"
The twinkle in Sev's eyes seems inappropriate; Tyler's heart is racing. He knows what Sev likely wants to ask. "Colby loves to imply how much of a sex god he is and I'm certain it's exaggerated, but I've never been able to prove it."
Tyler lets out a breath and hopes it's not obvious, slipping into the chair beside Colby. He laughs; Rye puts a glass of whiskey down in front of him. "I guess everyone needs something to brag about."
Colby's friends all laugh in their own way, and Colby looks at Tyler, eyes glowing in the light. "Somehow you managed to imply I am a sex god while still insulting me. Wow. I'm impressed."
"I'm sure he didn't mean to be so charitable," Rye says, grinning at Colby.
"They're always like this," Colby tells Tyler. "They're all coming after me, because they're jealous."
The gentle ribbing is familiar to Tyler, not too unlike his own friendships. Rye sits down at the last seat of the table, and Tyler takes a sip of his whiskey. He'd prefer a mixer- god, that's strong- but he keeps his face even.
Kuro's watching him carefully over his glasses, holding his whiskey loosely. "You play many card games, Tyler?"
Tyler takes a small sip of the whiskey again, thinking of his answer- the answer is no but he wants to sound less blunt about it- when Rye says, "should we start again, if Tyler is joining us? We have about sixteen rules by now."
"Of course, the moment I win is the moment we decide to restart," Sev grins. "Just kidding, I know. No way Tyler can keep up anyway."
"That's an assumption," Tyler remarks quickly, but not as quick as Colby, who snaps with a grin to keep it light.
"Tyler's incredibly smart," Colby says, staring at Sev, "and I'll be surprised if he doesn't win more rounds than he loses."
Rye's guffaw is loud, and Sev points at Colby. "Found your weak point," he says, before turning to Tyler. "Oh, he likes you."
Tyler is on fire, a fire that Colby set. Sev- someone Colby described as his brother- said that Colby likes him in that tone, and- Tyler's on fire, inside and out, and it feels like everything bad is burning around him.
Like a phoenix, might he rise?
Colby won't look at him, Colby brushes it off, but Tyler would do the same right now if someone implied he loved Colby. Which he does.
Something about this moment feels optimistic.
"I'll do my best," Tyler says, "and I don't even know what game we're playing."
Looking at Colby's friends, each of them seems to be at least a little amused. "Alright," Rye says; there's a deck of cards in the middle of the table that Rye gathers up. This room feels out of time and place. Colby likes him. "Have you ever played a game called Mao?"
"Never heard of it," Tyler admits.
"The game is simple." Can Tyler pay attention when he's looking at Colby out of the corner of his eye? And fuck, Kali- K A L I- is going to see Nancy's message and speak to him again soon. "You're trying to get rid of your cards. You can put down on the same suit, or the same number, and we go in turns. That's all you're allowed to know."
"Allowed?" Tyler raises an eyebrow.
"The game is to figure out the rules," Kuro says, as Rye is dealing. Tyler nods.
"Alright." Tyler looks at Colby, who finally takes a glance back at him; and the smile he gives is the same smile as ever, it gives nothing away, but Tyler's heart warms. It would've warmed even if Colby didn't look at him. "I understand."
The game goes quick- card, card, card, card. A card seems to be given for every mistake, and Tyler gets it for speaking first. Then, he tries to play a card after Rye- when it was going that way- and gets given a card. He learns that the card Rye just put down reverses order- an eight, he'll assume, he'll test that it's all eights and not just that one.
And Tyler picks it up quick. He's a little surprised when, focussing intently on the amount of cards in his own hand, Kuro says, "Mao."
Tyler looks up to Kuro's empty hands, and the laughter of everyone else. "Of course," Colby says. "As always. Don't make the new rule too hard on Tyler."
Tyler learns then that every won round, a new rule is added, unknown to everyone else. "He seems to be doing fine," Rye tells Colby, grinning at Tyler.
The rules aren't hard to figure out. Tyler just pays attention to which cards everyone else acts differently on, and hopes he doesn't miss something. He figures out that round that aces skip and on sevens you have to tell the next person to have a nice day. He also figures out Kuro's rule without much trouble: when placing a card after a two, you have to say the colour of the shirt of the person sitting on your left. It takes Tyler two fails of that rule- neither of them his- and Kuro having to do it once to figure that out. He thinks he's the only person to get it by the end of the round- which, this time, Rye wins.
And so the game goes, with increasingly difficult rules. Rye gives the nine of spades a name you have to say each time you place it down; Colby wins a round, and makes it so that kings and queens can't be placed on top of each other. He gleefully gives Tyler a card for that, the clue to his mistake being, "we don't do that here."
Tyler's good at learning unspoken rules, that's the thing. He pays close attention, catches a flick of expression, and learns, hopefully before he's punished for it, the ever-changing rights and wrongs. It's like being at home, it's like being a kid, it's like being around his father. The rules constantly changed, and Tyler tried his best to stay away from the danger zones- tried not to play cards he'd seen others get penalties for- but not everyone was so lucky. All of Darkfilly Copse was in this rule-blind hellscape as a child. His brother wasn't as good at it. Trey would hate this game. Kali played a stricter game and lost more often, and she tried as hard as she could.
Tyler really does miss her. He loves her like a little sister he never had. He wants to see her again. He just doesn't want it to be weird at all.
Tyler puts his last card down- a four of hearts, on a two of hearts. "Black. Mao."
He didn't look, because he knows exactly what shirt Colby's wearing. He's got his appearance and location burned into his mind at all times.
"I still don't get the colour one," Sev says, and Colby's looking at Tyler, and... Tyler wants to call it lovingly. God damnit.
"You're doing good," Rye says in a way that's either genuine, or very well disguised condescension. Tyler's feeling less drunk, and so he takes a long sip of the provided whiskey; it tastes more bitter with increased sobriety, but victory makes it sweet. "So now you've got to come up with a rule. It can be anything, but there are good and bad rules. Not too specific, personal, and we personally hate ones that require maths, but ultimately it's up to you."
Tyler thinks for a moment. He has an idea and wonders if it's cheesy, a little too much of a get-to-know-you game; but by the time cards are dealt and Rye asks him if he's come up with his rule, he doesn't have anything else, so he just nods.
He puts it on every heart (except the face cards, just to mess with them). He's the first to change a seven of clubs to a seven of hearts. "Have a very nice day. I'm an engineering student, but I'm thinking of quitting."
Rye goes to give him a card. "No talk..." he pauses, looking at Tyler with cogs turning. Tyler shakes his head, and Rye shrugs, putting the card in his own hand instead.
Rye puts down a ten of hearts, and at his silence, Tyler gives him a card. "It's nice to meet you," is his clue.
Rye grins. Kuro puts down a two of hearts, and says, "I've got a concert tomorrow?" with a questioning look at Tyler.
That seems like a fact about him, sure enough. Tyler nods.
Sev puts down a three of hearts, looking confusingly at Kuro, and almost instantly gets two cards, one from Kuro and one from Tyler. He laughs, almost says something but doesn't.
Colby puts down an ace of hearts- which skips Tyler- and says, "I'm not too bad at the violin. I had to learn as a kid, but I haven't played in years."
"How did I not know this?" Kuro says, happily taking the card Sev hands him for that.
Colby shrugs- not technically talking- and Rye puts down a queen of hearts. "I'm fluent in three languages."
Tyler tries not to laugh as he gives him a card. "Why are you talking?"
Rye's indignant, but keeps his complaints to hand gestures, as Kuro puts down an eight of hearts, reversing the order. "I have three tattoos."
Pretty much everyone at the table erupts in silent confusion, wild hand gestures and facial expressions at Kuro- Tyler assumes this is new knowledge- and Tyler is tempted to give Rye a card for taking too long before he puts down a king of hearts, and says nothing.
Tyler puts down a nine of hearts. "I might soon get back in touch with my childhood best friend."
"Wait, Kali?" Colby blinks at him, not seeing the card Sev puts down in front of him. "When did this happen?" Sev puts down a second card. "Well, that's good news, either way." Third card. "I can't believe you didn't tell me about this immediately." Fourth card. "Keep me updated." Five.
Tyler nods, as Colby turns back to five new cards. "Fuck," he says, and Sev, holding back laughter, gives him a sixth.
Colby manages to change it to clubs, and they go around in silence for a few more minutes. On his off turns, Tyler takes longer and longer sips of whiskey until it's gone and he's fuzzy and the edge of thinking is taken off a little.
He puts down his last card, the seven of hearts, on the seven of clubs. "Have a very nice day. I'm glad my father is dying. Mao."