I unfortunately don't own anything. But I'd love to own Tyler.
—Tyshley one-shot set in the period Tyler had to leave for New Orleans to film Ravenswood. Forgive me for any grammar mistake. Enjoy :)
"It's a new show, it's called Ravenswood. And you'll be the protagonist!"
Marlene was so happy for Tyler, when she gave him the news. He was petrified, instead. He didn't know what to think. What was it going to mean for his role in Pretty Little Liars? Was he gonna have to leave it?
"Tyler, is everything okay?" Marlene continued, seeing him perplexed.
"That's awesome, but... Will I have to leave Pretty Little Liars?"
Marlene approached him with a smile on her face which looked like the perfect representation of the melancholy.
"You deserve this opportunity, Tyler. I've thought a lot about it, you know how much I care about Caleb, he's a character who I personally traced... I'm so attached to him that I didn't get rid of him like this. You're gonna keep playing Caleb Rivers, you'll just do it in Ravenswood, with a different cast and a different set. And you'll do it as the protagonist."
Tyler nodded, but he was still not very convinced, even though happy because he was gaining his first protagonist role. It's an important goal for an actor.
"Marlene, do you think Caleb gave eveything he had to give to the show?" he asked again.
"Caleb gave so much more than what he had to give. But he didn't give everything he could have given, you know, he would still have so much more to say... He could give endlessly."
"Then why can't he?"
"Because someone ask me for a member of the cast to create the Ravenswood spin-off, and the one who deserves a protagonist role is you, Tyler. You're the best and it's right that you go on your way. I'm doing this because Tyler Blackburn deserves it, not because I want Caleb Rivers done with Pretty Little Liars. Don't think this because it's not like that."
Tyler nodded and smiled at Marlene. That woman definitely care about him. But even though that, Tyler immediately thought about how much he was gonna miss his co-work buddies, that cast of young and crazy actors, everyone at the beginning, more or less. And most of all, about how much he was gonna miss Ashley. God, how much he was gonna miss her.
"Have you already thought about how I'm gonna get out of the picture?" he asked then, suddenly.
Marlene looked at him with a smile.
"I know what you're thinking about." she said.
"What?" Caleb replied, raising his eyebrows.
"You wanna know what's gonna happen between Hanna and Caleb. I know that you care, well, you guys care to death about them. You and Ashley."
'You and Ashley'. Tyler held back a smile at those words. That was true, he cared to death about Hanna and Caleb, if it wasn't for them, how much he and Ashley would actually have become close? Yeah, because they became really close, so much close that Tyler could no longer distinguish the boundaries of that very particular relationship. Besides that crazy girl of Ashley made her part in it, writing on Twitter very lovely words to him quite often, or releasing interviews with statements which didn't leave too many doubts. 'He makes me laugh, I've such a crush!' was her last thing. Ashley was like that, a volcano.
Between set breaks, they always found the time for a coffee with donuts at the Starbucks at the corner of the street. And then they always ended up coming back late, with her taking him by the hand and running laughing towards the set. 'Marlene and Norman are gonna kill us!' she chuckled, even though she knew that they were gonna be fine for the nth time.
Tyler didn't hide to himself the fact that he adored her, that she was so beautiful that made his head spin all around, that made him love so much that role in the show that 'forced' him to touch and kiss her in plenty scenes. While Hanna and Caleb were falling in love, between Tyler and Ashley something was going on as well. From the on-set kisses, they had passed to the habit to kiss even when Hanna and Caleb were in standby. In a total spontaneous way, they basically greeted each other like that. And Ashley enjoyed it even more, taking pictures with her Tyler in her arms and posting those pictures and videos on Instagram, Keek, Twitter or anywhere else. And there was always Tyler by her side. Everywhere.
But if he stopped and thought about it, Tyler didn't even know how they had become so intimate. He had arrived later in the cast, and he had immediately started filming scenes with Ashley. She had done everything to make him feel comfortable, and when they went wrong with some lines she suddenly bursted into laughter, and the Hanna Marin's dimples which made Caleb Rivers' eyes sparkle, in a moment became the Ashley Benson's dimples which made Tyler Blackburn's eyes sparkle.
'She's hilarious. She's beautiful. She's kind. She's just everything you would want.' he had told a magazine, instead. He didn't even want to go too far. He really didn't know how to call that special relationship between himself and Ashley, he then had contained himself but he had finally spoken about her. He would have drowned in his thoughts or exploded if he hadn't. The journalists, then, had gone like crazy, saying they were dating. Ashley hadn't made such a big deal, and she had twitted to the offending magazine the question about what they were gonna make up next, then adding 'I do love you though' to Tyler, without problems. She was crazy. And Caleb adored her.
"Yes, I was actually thinking about that." Tyler said, trying to hide a few lines of awkwardness.
"I'm gonna talk about it with Bryan, I wouldn't want to be forced to break them up. They're perfect together, don't you think?" Marlene continued, smiling.
"Yeah." Tyler just said.
The chat with Marlene ended a little after. Tyler got out of that office full of a lot of different and conflicting feelings. He couldn't help but call Ashley. He impulsively grabbed his mobile and made the call, without even knowing what to tell her.
"Hey, Ty!" Ashley's harmonic voice picked up.
"Ash, something unbelievable happened..." Tyler murmured.
"What?"
"I'm leaving Pretty Little Liars. I haven't decided it, it's that Marlene wants to give me a protagonist role in a spin-off, and... Well, I have to leave."
"Oh..." Ashley said on the other side, almost in a whisper.
"Anyway, that's not gonna happen soon. It's that... I wanted to tell you."
"I'm happy for you, really. You deserve this." she replied, not completely 'happy' as she had announced herself.
"Well, thank you. Okay, so... See you tomorrow, kisses." Tyler cut off, embarassed.
"Kisses, bye, Ty." she said hastily, stammering on her words.
From that day, something changed. Tyler really put all himself in Caleb's scenes, aware of the fact that they were gonna be the last ones. He owed everything to Caleb: his professional success, his artistic-formative growing and the fact that he had met people so special -Ashley, for example-. Tyler off-set changed as well. He tried to totally enjoy his time with Ashley, aware of how much he was gonna miss her. He hugged her often, he had been able to go a little further than before. He didn't just make some stupid jokes to gain a smile from her on which he would have based his whole day, but when he had the chance, he jumped on her kissing her, tickling her, holding her against himself, making her scent become an habit for his lungs. And each one of Ashley's smiles was worth every doubt he had before searching for a contact with her. He had also replied to one of her tweets, one night. It didn't say anything in particular, she just admitted to have gotten emotional while shooting some scenes with him. And Tyler hadn't been able not to write what he was feeling; for once he didn't care about what people would have thought or about how much far he was going.
'I have a lump in my throat. I love you babe.' he wrote and posted without second thoughts. The lump in the throat was obviously referred to the fact that all of that magic should have disappeared soon, while that 'I love you' had no proper references or explications. Tyler had become like 'Screw everything, I love her', living his time with her without asking himself too many questions, without wondering what he and Ashley were, what they had become. He didn't wonder that, for him it was enough to have her close, that close.
The day of the last scene came. And obviously, Caleb Rivers' last scene would have been by Hanna Marin's side, the love of his life. And Tyler Blackburn's last scene would have been by Ashley Benson's side, as it was right to be. Ashley and Tyler were looking at each other as to realize that was really gonna the last time that they would have filmed a scene together, except for surprises, and from Marlene King, Norman Buckley and Bryan Holdman was neither too wrong to expect them. But the melancholy in the air was the same which Tyler had seen in Marlene's smile the day in which she had told him that he was gonna be 'headed' to Ravenswood. The bitterness was much, Ashley and Tyler didn't like at all the idea to part Hanna and Caleb, that love so strong, powerful, and the fans didn't like that either, which had expressed all of their dissent through the social networks, once arrived the news of Tyler Blackburn's leaving. No one liked what was going on that morning. The scene was shooted with strong emotion. Ashley and Tyler put heart, soul, everything in it. Hanna and Caleb were so important to them. But when the director shouted 'Good!' at the end of the shoot, Tyler felt a hole in his chest, an incomparable feeling of emptiness. He was no longer part of that series' cast which had really given him everything. And he had in front of himself one of the many things which it had given to him, beautiful as the sun, Ashley. Even though the scene was over and filmed, the tears at the corner of both's eyes kept streaming down, slow and uncontrollable. Marlene came closer to the two and hugged them, emotional as well, just thanking them and then disappearing with all the crew. Ashley instinctively grabbed Tyler's hand and, still with teary eyes, whispered 'Starbucks?', and then saw Tyler nod and smile bitterly, as he wiped his tears away with one hand, no longer Caleb's ones, but Tyler's ones.
Here they are, again. Ashley and Tyler. Sitting at one of the Starbucks tables, with coffee and donuts in front of them. But this time no one of the two is actually so smiling, or talkative, or hungry either. Tyler keeps mixing the cream with the coffee with his straw, as Ashley doesn't go further than the first bite of her donut.
"Are you gonna visit us?" she decides to murmur then.
"Everytime I'll be able to." Tyler replies, lifting his gaze, lost in his cup.
"Do you mind if we go? Since looks like no one of us is hungry, strangely." she says again.
Tyler nods, gets up from the table and stretches one hand toward her, which she grabs immediately, and they get out of there with interwined fingers and low gazes. They walk silently, as their hands stay joined. Tyler doesn't say anything, because he'd like to say so many things that he prefers to stay silent, there, with his Ashley. She doesn't say anything either, she just knows that she's gonna miss that long-haired idiot to death and that without him neither Hanna Marin nor Ashley Benson are gonna be the same. But Tyler knows that he has to say something, even though he doesn't know what. He's there, with her, and he knows that that moment which seems so daily to him soon is gonna be nothing but a wonderful memory. The words, though, really don't come out of his mouth. Suddenly, then, he chooses to still. Ashley stills with him, looking at him doubtfully. Tyler thinks that she's beautiful, and he dares to leave her hand just to put his arms behind her back and hold her in a hug, gesture which maybe can say everything that he can't say in that moment. Ashley hugs back and she can't help but restart crying. Tyler notices it, so he looks at her trying to send her safety and comfort, but he can't, because in that moment he doesn't know what safety and comfort are either. God, those eyes totally drive him mad. In that istant, Tyler feels like he can, has and wants to do just one thing; he approaches Ashley's face, shyly, closer and closer, and despite it's not the first time that they kiss with the cameras off, he finds so difficult to control himself when his lips meet Ashley's delicate ones. He kisses her with delicacy, as he strokes her blonde hair messed by the wind with one hand. Their lips separate from each other's for a moment, then they reunite with both of them's approval, and they restarted touching, and then part and let Ashley and Tyler give in to their confused ideas, their unsure answers, the things that they're scared to call feelings.
"What are you and I, Ash?" Tyler murmurs then, a few inches apart from Ashley's delicate mouth.
"You and I are Ashley and Tyler." she replies with decision, touching his nose with hers, and earning a smile from him.
That answer makes Tyler understand that neither Ashley knows what are the boundaries of their relationship, how the magic between them is called. For her it's fine like that too, even for her it's enough to have him close, that close.
A few hours later, Tyler sat across his laptop, thinking about restarting to watch Pretty Little Liars from the beginning, as a viewer, maybe falling in love with Hanna Marin's smile. He decides to log on Twitter; he'd like to go checking Ashley's page, who knows why. He doesn't have to, though. Through his interactions he finds a tweet right from Ashley, and his heart jumped.
'On another note... It's my last day working with Tyler Blackburn. Such an insane feeling. So so happy for him but I'll miss him dearly.'
Tyler lets a tear caress his face, as he tries to find the right words through the keyboard buttons.
'So many emotions. I don't even have words. You're my angel.'
This is everything that he manages to write, as he watches the city lights turn off one at time through the window, with the eyes of someone who knows that tomorrow's not gonna be like before anymore.
A/N: I wrote this OS in September 2013. I found it in my drafts and I decided to post it since I'm a huge Tyshley supporter as well :) —The sentences written in bold are actually been said by Tyler or Ashley. A review would make me really happy, just to know if I did a good job or not, since this is the only Tyshley story I've ever written ;) Happy Valentine's day everyone! :) xx -Atramea.