Well, my first story ^^ Warning, contains yaoiiii -giggles-

HTF and all characters belong to Mondo Media

Love...

The word echoed in his mind. He'd heard Giggles tell Cuddles so many times how much she loved him, but he had never thought he himself would fall in love...

But lately he's found himself thinking about a certain blue flying squirrel a lot more often than he should...

Toothy was eating his breakfast at the local diner when he saw Splendid walk in. Giggles looked at Toothy and smiled sweetly before going over to take Splendid's order.

Was it really so obvious he was gay and had a huge crush on Splendid? Surely not!

Toothy sighed and looked at his coffee. He blinked rapidly suddenly.

Coffee? He never drank coffee... he wasn't old, he didn't need the extra energy...

But then again, he thought calmly, I haven't gotten any sleep the last few days... When will I stop thinking about him all night long?

"Heya, Toothy!" Toothy heard Cuddles call out as he dashed over and jumped onto the barstool beside him. Toothy looked at Cuddles with a cautious glance.

"What have you planned that will surely get us killed today?" Toothy asked suspiciously.

"Awe, ye of little faith! Who says we'll get killed?"

"Because you're you."

"..."

"What? You know it's true."

Cuddles suddenly laughed and said, "I didn't know you had a sense of humor."

Toothy looked at him oddly. "Yea you did... You've known me over fifty years now, and neither of us have grown a single day since then."

"Well, lately you've been edgy and bitter. The other day you fell out of the airplane but you didn't even scream!"

"I fell asleep."

"Huh, odd... So waddya wanna do today?!"

"Not so loud. And I'd like to finish my coffee, really, then go home and back to sleep," Toothy stated, taking a sip of his coffee. He made a small face. The coffee was starting to get cold.

"Since when did you start drinking coffee?" Cuddles asked incredulously.

"I asked him the same thing," Giggles said, skating back over and leaning on the counter, "but he wouldn't asnwer me. Muttered something under his breath and began eating his breakfast."

Toothy sighed. "Guys, I'm gonna skip fun today and go home. I've lost a lot of hours of sleep."

With that, Toothy jumped down from his barstool and walked out.

Splendid noticed the purple beaver-Toothy, if he remembered correctly- after the yellow rabbit shouted out to him. Splendid had simply ordered coffee-he wasn't hungry but he was tired, and he needed to be alert. The girl behind the counter had gotten him his coffee and then took others' orders.

He listened to the noises and conversations around him. He stared into his coffee, listening to the loud rabbit Cuddles. Cuddles seemed extremely energetic, but he knew Toothy was tired before he even stated he was and all he wanted to do was go back to sleep.

Splendid knew that, in Happy Tree Town, even sleeping was dangerous. The bed would either close in on the Tree Friend, or a spring will burst through and kill the Tree Friend. Simply going back to sleep would not save Toothy from certain death.

He noticed Giggles go over to Cuddles and Toothy just as the former was stating he didn't know Toothy drank coffee. Then she said something about asking the same but never receiving an audible answer.

Splendid sighed and drank his coffee. He heard Toothy leave, but paid it no mind.

Why should he care if someone leaves because of tiredness?

Toothy was walking down the street, going towards his own house. He was incredibly tired, and he didn't know how he would get to sleep again. Thoughts of his hero plagued him all night...

All of a sudden, he felt himself trip over something and he went sprawling to the ground. He quickly looked up and saw a wolf standing over him, scowling.

"Hey, fag, get outta town," he said angrily to Toothy. "We don't like your kind."

Just as he said this, two more wolves appeared behind him. Toothy gulped.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," he stuttered stupidly. His own friends were pretty accepting of his obvious homosexuality, but he should have realized that the gangsters on the streets could tell the difference between straight and gay, and they did not accept it at all.

Toothy felt the leader grab him by the throat and hold him up. Then he threw him into the alleyway.

"Oh yes you do, fag," the wolf grinned devilishly at Toothy, walking towards him.

"Please I just want to go home and go to sleep," Toothy groaned. He was way too tired to deal with this.

"Sorry, fag, you're going right to the hospital, and then...," the wolf grinned suddenly. "Tell me how it's like outside the boundaries, fag... actually, no, you won't be able to... because you'll be dead."

With that, the three wolves attacked the defenseless beaver, whom didn't even have time to scream.

Toothy woke up the next day staring up at a white ceiling.

"Oh good, you're awake!" Cuddles' voice exclaimed, and next thing he knew he was being tackled a bundle of yellow fuzz.

"Agh! C-Cuddles, stop that, that hurtssss...!" Toothy suddenly shouted, trying to wriggle away from Cuddles.

"Oh! Sorry, I forgot you're incredibly bruised...," Cuddles said sheepishly, stepping away from his best friend. "Toothy, what happened? Why are you in the hospital? How did you die?"

Toothy looked at Cuddles defensively, then quickly gave in. "I was attacked by a gang while on my way home... is it really that obvious that I'm... you know...?"

Cuddles smiled sheepishly and nodded slightly. "Hey, don't worry, Toothy. A lot of the HTF guys are actually bi, even if not exactly homo... but hey, don't worry. No one's gonna attack you again."

"Why do you say that? How would you know? They seemed like they seriously wanted me to die permanently... When will I be able to go home?"

"Err... well, at least now we know how it started...," Cuddles sighed.

Toothy looked suddenly scared. "How what started?"

"Erm, well, Toothy, your house kind of, well, caught on fire. We thought you had left a fire in the fireplace, but... the gang that attacked you must have did it."

"How bad is the damage...?" Toothy asked, fearing the answer.

Cuddles was silent for a moment before saying, "Well... let's just say if you go back to live at your own home, your roof would be a small pile of ashes..."

"Oh."

They fell silent, then Toothy sighed frustratedly.

"Ya know, Toothy, you could stay at my house for a while."

"Rumors would start then," Toothy said dryly, and Cuddles knew he was right.

"Well, we could always get a couple of the girls and a few other guys to come stay for a while, too," Cuddles suggested.

"Cuddles, your house isn't that big," Toothy pointed out.

"Well, if we get Giggles, Petunia, Flaky, and maybe Splen-"

"No!" Toothy immediately sat up, sending a spasm of pain through his body, but he ignored it. "He's the reason this all started...!"

"W-well, we can't exactly get Flippy over, he'd kill us all, DB is a damn womanizer, Cro-Marmot would melt, Nutty would eat me out of house and home, Lumpy would bring his elephant, Sniffles would blow the damn house away, Splendont hates us all, Pop would end up leaving something out that would kill us, Cub is too young, Shifty and Lifty would steal everything, Mole would break my guitar somehow probably, Russell wouldn't come anyway, Mime doesn't particularly do 'sleepovers', Handy is quite older than us...Really Splendid is our only other choice if we want it all equal."

"How about we don't bring Petunia into the picture? She'd die from hysterics with how your house looks," Toothy suggested, but he knew Cuddles was already set on his own suggestion. "Besides, Splendid is older than us as well."

"He's also more responsible than the others!"

They heard a short laugh from the doorway and looked over at Giggles.

"Do you know how many times he's ended up killing me in the process of saving me? Not very responsible when you think about it. Besides, Toothy is right, Petunia would go into hysteria and Splendid is older than us. You can tell by how mature his voice is...."

Cuddles immediately recognized the 'dreamy' look on Giggles' face and quickly said, "Okay then, we'll go with Toothy's suggestion."

Toothy sighed in relief.

He lay down to go to sleep that night in the hospital, grateful for the sleeping pills he was given.

A few days after Giggles, Flaky, and Toothy began staying at Cuddles' house-took them forever to convince Flaky it'd be alright- Cuddles decided to have Movie Night. He called every (canon) Happy Tree Friend, including Splendid, but Toothy didn't know this.

They were waiting at Flaky's house, the only house that was big enough for everyone, when all the guests arrived.

Splendid came out of simple courtesy.

Toothy nearly freaked out and had to restrain himself from attacking Cuddles.

Cuddles laughed at Toothy's incredulous expression, then laughed more at Toothy's glare. No one else noticed because they were making popcorn and getting drinks. Toothy sat down on the floor by the couch. When someone questioned him about why he sat on the floor, he simply stated that he'd probably fall asleep before the end of the movie and he really didn't feel like going through the embarrassment of falling asleep on someone's shoulder. He said it was too childish.

Toothy didn't count on the fact that Splendid would be sitting on the couch at the edge seat.

Toothy couldn't help but notice Splendid looked slightly bored here.

Toothy didn't blame him.

Toothy stared at the floor, avoiding looking at Splendid. He knew if he looked at him, Splendid would notice and if Splendid noticed, he himself would blush. He didn't want that happening. Everyone else was able to put two and two together and figure out he liked Splendid like that but Splendid hadn't, and no one had told him.

Toothy knew no one would tell him. That was a relief.

Cuddles started the movie and they all watched.

Toothy stared at the screen, his eyes wide as he realized what they were watching.

Chainsaw Massacre.

By the end of the movie, Toothy had fallen asleep, just like he said he probably would.

He had been leaning on the side of the couch, but then for some 'unknown' reason, Cuddles decided it would be fun to push him over onto Splendid's feet.

Splendid had glanced down at the beaver, then at the rabbit, who was laughing behind his hand. Splendid decided to dismiss the action and continue paying attention to the movie. He was tired, but he wasn't about to let himself fall asleep, not when so many people were still awake and in potential danger.

When the movie finally ended, people got up to leave. Splendid had started poking Toothy, trying to wake him up. After the third or fouth poke, he did wake up. He had rubbed his eyes and looked around sleepily, and then jumped back as soon as he realized that he had 'fallen' on Splendid's feet.

After he and the others got back to Cuddles place, Toothy started chasing Cuddles around angrily, shouting about how tht had not been funny.

"Ohh, I thought it was VERY funny," Cuddles laughed while running away from the beaver.

Toothy had nightmares from the movie for the few nights following.

He would wake up with wide eyes, but he never woke up screaming. He would get comfortable on the air mattress again and try to get back to sleep, but with no luck.

In his dreams, the lead gangster was the chainsaw guy, and every victim Toothy played.

The gangster always said, "Get out of town, fag, or else I'm coming after ya."

Toothy didn't go anywhere alone after those dreams started.

Splendid was lying in his bed back at his house.

He was thinking about the movie. The beaver had been scared witless one second, then the next asleep.

Then just a few minutes after falling asleep, Cuddles thought it would be fun to push him over on Splendid's feet.

Splendid hadn't been very humored by it.

Splendid had heard the rumors about Toothy being homosexual. He didn't know whether to believe them or not, but he was taking no chances.

Of course, first he'd have to figure out the way he himself feels before trying to find out whether the rumors were true or not...

________________________To Be Continued____________________________

There's only two or three chapters to this BTW. XD See, during the first chapter we're supposed to think Toothy's feelings are one-sided, but at the end we discover Splendid has been having conflicts with himself over it... mwahaha...

Well, tell me what you think.