A/N: Hello people! So, a couple weeks ago I wrote a story called Connected. It featured YouTubers in the world of the Mortal Instruments. I loved writing Tyler and Troye's relationship, so I decided to expand on it slightly with a scene set in the Connected universe.
If you haven't or don't want to read Connected, it doesn't matter. Just know that Tyler is a warlock and Troye is a Seelie (faerie) person. They are both immortal and they have a frowned-upon "inter-species" love. So, their relationship is secret. That's all you need to know.
This little oneshot is a gift to chkoh85, for her amazing Troyler stories. (Especially Sweet Escape, go check that out.) I hope to one day be able to write Troyler as well as her.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Mortal Instruments, and I obviously don't own Tyler Oakley or Troye Sivan. I haven't even met them. *sobs in corner*
Being a warlock, Tyler Oakley had been in more than his fair share of relationships. He had been with just about every species there was, provided they were men of course. Each person he dated, hooked up with, or flirted with had been different, of course, everyone was, but after nearly 300 years of living, they were all starting to blur. Every face, be it vampire, werewolf, warlock, fey, or (rarely) Shadowhunter, had been starting to look the same.
And that had scared him, because the blurriness was the first sign of starting to lose emotion. Always being able to have his heart broken and put back together was one of the only constants in his ever-changing life. If he lost emotion, life wouldn't be worth living.
But constant falling in and out of love wasn't the only constant. One of the others was that no matter who it was, if they were fey they would dislike him on sight.
Of course, there had been several (very good-looking) exceptions to that rule over the years. Tyler knew that Seelie held grudges for a long time, but he couldn't seem to break through their coldness towards him for several mistakes on his part centuries ago. They were truthful and deceiving at the same time, a conceited and sly people. And for every drunken hookup he had with a younger Seelie, they seemed to only get colder.
Until he met Troye Sivan.
Tall, beautiful, flawless seeming, and with deep blue, fathomless eyes, Tyler's head had turned the moment the fey had stepped into the Downworlder club. He had tripped over his own feet – something he never did – while dancing, and his eyes had locked on Troye's slim figure.
The warlock knew he had never seen a fey that looked so entrancing, or so interested.
For Troye was interested. Clearly he had never been with a warlock before, as he was shy and oh so sweet, two traits very different from most Seelie people. They fell into place easily at the party that night, and when they parted ways for the first time Tyler felt a wrench in his gut, as though something in him was being severed.
This was more than attraction. These feelings were the beginning flames of what was soon the fire of love. This was a love kindled between two immortals, a love to last an eternal lifetime.
And this love, this soulmate's connection, was simply not allowed in Downworlder society.
Oh, sure, inter-species relationships were fine if it was a fling. Everyone knew warlocks flirted with everything under the sun. Everyone had a relative or friend that was a werewolf and had had a one night stand with a vampire. That was just dismissed, as mundane one night stands often were.
But an actual love? An actual lasting relationship? No, of course not. That was just silly. Especially not a Seelie! They often had arranged marriages, or arranged partnerships. It wasn't legal, but somehow, that fact was a little-known fact. Seelie married other Seelie. Seelie loved other Seelie. And that was how things went, and the world turned round and the sun rose in the morning.
However, if Seelie were only supposed to love other fey, then why was Troye finding it so pleasant to lay his head across a warlock's lap, and have that same warlock's hands run through it, while they talked or sat in silence, while the sunrays beamed in through the window and illuminated their faces?
They sat in Tyler's loft. The living room was decorated perfectly, with its style being colourful and quirky and just so Tyler. When they had first arrived that day, it had been Troye's first time inside Tyler's apartment and he wasn't sure what to expect, but Tyler had made him laugh out loud by describing every colour in the apartment.
Their silences were comfortable, that day. They had been for a while now. Troye, being a naturally quiet being, appreciated the lack of meaningless words where silence would work. It was very un-Seelie of him, as was his trait of getting straight to the point when he talked. Most Seelie delighted in nothing more than to beat around the bush as much as they could.
Troye broke the silence after awhile.
"...Tilly?"
The purple-haired warlock smiled down at Troye. "Yeah?"
"Do you like music?"
Tyler did. He had met many of the greatest singers of all time, and he, like many people, always knew who had released what music at any given time. He nodded his agreement.
"Would you like to hear one of my songs?" Troye asked shyly.
Tyler's eyes widened. Troye sang? He hadn't known that. They had only been together for a couple of weeks, but Tyler and Troye had gotten to know each other so well that he didn't think Troye had any more big secrets. He was quite a young fey, after all, still not quite mature. His face had not yet taken on the "ageless" look that most Seelie had, and he still looked like he was in his early twenties.
But Troye had always managed to keep surprising him.
"Of course!" Tyler exclaimed, excited. "I would love to hear one!"
A bit reluctantly, and blushing slightly, Troye lifted his head off of the warlock's lap. "Would you happen to have a piano?" he asked.
Tyler did happen to have a piano. It was nothing fancy, just an upright, but judging by the way Troye looked at the piano, it was a lot better than anything he had played at the Seelie Court. Seelie preferred magical instruments, ones with charms or built-in spells. A piano that didn't do anything out of the ordinary would have been scoffed at, in the conceited Seelie way.
Gently, almost reverently, Troye lifted the cover of the piano and sat down. He glanced at Tyler, who gave him an encouraging nod. He breathed in, then out. His fingertips touched the keys softly. And then-
The music that poured out of the piano was everything. It was like a dream, and the music had a hazy feel to it. Troye's voice was clear and sweet, and low. The song had a sad feel to it, even though the lyrics suggested otherwise. It was a song of being hesitant, but certain, and breaking free. The whole song was ethereal, and it sounded as though the piano being played was only one of the many instruments the song portrayed.
When at least the song ended, Troye lingered at the piano for a moment longer, before turning to Tyler, and he was surprised at what he saw.
Tyler, who had lived for over 300 years looking like he, was 25, and who had just then begun to feel the effects of forgetting feelings, was crying. Tears of joy, directed at the beauty of music, rolled down his cheeks, turning his face red as it did when he blushed.
"Tyler?" whispered Troye.
"I love you," said Tyler through his tears. "I love you so, so much."
Troye, a Seelie born and bred, who had been trained from birth to not show feelings and to use love only as an excuse for coercion, realized in that moment that he loved Tyler, and he always would, and he didn't care if it was forbidden, or frowned-upon, all the Seelie were jerks anyway.
He crossed the room quickly, grasped Tyler by the hands and pulled him up from the sofa, and before Tyler knew what was going on Troye was kissing him, deeply and desperately. Troye's face tilted down and captured Tyler's lips with a passion that really could only be felt by someone who –
Troye paused. The tear tracks on Tyler's face were still there, but the tears had stopped. His lips were red and flushed. He didn't look sad, or happy, just completely absorbed in this moment. Troye leaned closer until only a hair's width of space lay between them. "I love you too," he breathed, and this time, Tyler took the initiative.
They kissed in the loft, the sun pouring in, the world spinning as the warlock and the fey stood and loved and felt, for the first time in so long.
And this all happened because both of them knew that the people of the fey cannot lie.
A/N: What do you think? Please let me know! Kudos to you if you can guess the song that Troye sang! Hint: It's from the WILD EP.
Thanks again to chkoh85 for her amazing stories.
