Shine Like It Does ("I Want To Touch You" universe Stand Alone.)
Title: Shine Like It Does
Rating: M for mature audiences.
Pairing(s): Jeremy/Tyler
Summary: AU: Jeremy and Tyler form a relationship right under everyone's noses. (a/n: you can read this without reading the first story)
Disclaimer: All of the Vampire Dairies characters in this story belong to that of L J Smith, and CW Network.
Jeremy open's his eyes and the smell of burnt licorice assaults his senses. The chemical high that he partook in last night wasn't nearly as high as he wanted to go.
There's Vickie, and she's beautiful and damaged and it's okay because Jeremy is damaged, too. And the two can be fucked up together, it's alright with him. Then Vickie is gone, and it's all because of a vampire and a stake, and nothing makes sense.
There is only Tyler, and his hot fist, and his hotter temper, and it always seems to connect with Jeremy's face. Jeremy's blood smeared on Tyler's hands seems to make Tyler so happy, the sick fuck.
Tyler invites him to a party and Jeremy thinks it's a joke at first because, really, he and Tyler aren't the best of friends. The party is boring. The music is too loud and everyone is too drunk and if this was any other day, Jeremy would gladly join the festivities. But this is not any other day, and partying just doesn't do it for him anymore.
Jeremy get's destructive. There is glass everywhere from something from Tyler's house that someone has broke. Jeremy picks up a piece and means to carve VICKIE into his arm, but ends up carving ALONE, instead. Tyler finds him, and asks with disgust written all over his face, "What the hell did you do to yourself, Gilbert?" Funny, Jeremy asks himself that all the time. Jeremy thinks that maybe, something inside of him is broken.
This thing that starts between them feels so much like it should have been a bad idea. Aunt Jenna pretends not to notice, and Elena never notices anything.
Once at a make-shift dinner party, Elena is fuming because Bonnie and Stefan look to chummy together, and Damon is bored out of his mind because he finally got Elena but she's not all she's cracked up to be.
Jeremy stares at Tyler all night because there is nothing to do except look at the plate in front of him, filled with Jenna's exotic cooking or look at the dysfunctional people around him. Tyler stares at Jeremy because he likes looking at him. Everyone was confused as to why Tyler was invited over in the first place, but who cares. Damon surprises everyone when he asks, "Are you two fucking?," and Jeremy panics because he didn't want it to come out that way, but Damon isn't talking to him and Tyler, and Jeremy lets out the breath he's been holding.
Everyone ignores everyone, and Stefan asks for more pie. Really, who ever heard of making moo goo gai pan for the main meal, with apple pie being the desert?
Tyler get's out of helping Caroline with a party she is throwing because he tells her he is tutoring Jeremy. It is almost funny because Caroline doesn't really believe it, but she won't push the issue either.
Instead, for that day, Tyler and Jeremy study each others faces when there is something particularly good going on below the neck. They study each other's open mouths and the blazing hickey that Jeremy left on Tyler from the previous hook-up.
They sneak around like that for awhile and they are amazed that no one says anything.
Once, there is a knock at the door that turns out to be the pizza delivery man. Elena pays the man, and rightly assumes that the pizza belongs to Jeremy. She heads up to Jeremy's room with the pizza boxes in hand, and knocks on the door like a dutiful sister. There is some shuffling and obvious movement on the other side of the door, but Jeremy was always secretive.
When Jeremy finally opens the door, Elena was set to lay into him about paying her back for the pizza but she can't get the words out: The cloud of marijuana smoke drifting out of the room and Tyler Lockwood is shirtless, sweaty and lying on Jeremy's bed with his pants unbuttoned. Jeremy is in a similar state: shirtless, his unruly hair ruffled, sweatpants hanging off his hipbones.
Jeremy amends whatever argument Elena plans to make with a "Thanks, I'll pay you back later," Jeremy slams and locks his bedroom door, leaving Elena standing outside of it, looking like a gaping fish.
It would be hilarious if Jeremy and Tyler weren't so terribly hungry.
Jeremy finds this ridiculously old and abandoned house and tells Tyler about it. The two go off together, and they spend the day rolling around naked on the creaky floorboards because no one is there to stop them.
Sometimes, Tyler hates the sneaking around because it's just one more thing to hide from everyone. But he hates it like he hates everything, like he hates that Jeremy is taller than him: with no real heat behind it, just annoyance.
Jeremy thinks that Tyler is so terribly hot against him that there should be blisters or something. Tyler is a furnace, and Jeremy's skin should be splintering off to melt against Tyler's skin. It is like this, all of the time. They cannot get enough of each other, all of the time. Forget the drugs, Tyler is the most dangerous thing Jeremy's ever done.
Jenna catches them, really catches them and it all goes to hell. Jeremy can't wait to get out from under this roof with the hypocrisy and the lies and how Elena could fuck whomever she wants to but Jeremy can't so much as even look at Tyler now. Tyler's father reacts to the news much worse.
Jeremy goes to New York because Anna was so beautiful but she left a bad taste in his mouth. Tyler goes to New York because his father is dead, and it is not like the bastard ever did anything but lie to him his whole life, anyway.