It was a warm evening in Slender Woods. A brown haired boy was making his way out to the back of the manor he'd lived in for years.

He found a certain tree were another boy, his hair a slightly darker brown, sat at the base of the trunk. Despite the sleep mask he wore he was wide awake. He turned to face the other. A smile on his face, "Took you long enough, Toby. I thought the sun would rise before you got here."

Toby twitched slightly, his heart fluttering at the other's smile. He was the only person to make him smile.

"Sorry, Cole," Toby muttered, "Slender needed me to do a quick check around the forest."

Cole gave a hum of understanding, though Toby knew he would have rather snarked about how the faceless being shouldn't be making everyone do stuff.

Cole was still fairly new around here and wasn't exactly happy about it. However since the two had begun speaking he'd been less open about his dislike of the Underrealm, Slender Woods and Manor. He just enjoyed speaking with the other too much to waste it complaining.

Toby sat next to him, "You know something strange?"

Cole tilted his head, "Besides us being here?"

Toby refrained his urge to smack him, "We meet at the same tree at the same time every evening."

Cole was silent a moment, realizing he was right. This was even the same tree they'd meet at.

Cole had been standing there after that harpy brought him here. Toby had seen him from inside the manor and came out to greet him. The first thing Cole did was slam him against the tree and start screaming at him.

To make the story short that harpy showed up and knocked him out. He later woke up in a bedroom with two beds. He lay in one dazed and confused. The other bed was occupied by Toby.

He'd found out later that proxies had to share rooms. Regardless of who they belonged, too.

"Yeah," Cole mumbled, "Hey, I'm sorry about how I acted when we met. I wasn't in the right state of mind."

Toby let out a small giggle, "I've told you not to worry about that. Besides it's not like you hurt me. I can't feel pain remember?" His blue eyes sparkled a bit under his goggles as he smiled at the other.

Cole nodded, remembering a previous conversation with Toby where he explained that he had Tourette Syndrome, which explained his twitching, Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (C.I.P.A) and Bipolar Disorder. He also had P.T.S.D. from being in the car accident that took his sister from him, though since his death he hasn't had any issues.

Toby was the only person Cole would admit to having a rougher life than his own.

Poor dude's been through so much and has had to- His thoughts were interrupted by the other tugging at his sleep mask.
"Hey! What are you-"
"I hate talking to you when you have this stupid thing on," Toby interrupted, curtly.
Cole sighs and pulls away from the other, "I'd prefer to keep it on, Toby. It makes me look relatively normal."
Toby pouted under his mask, letting out a hot breath that would have fogged his goggles if they weren't so tightly pressed to his face.
"Don't pout at me," Cole quipped.
"You can't even see me! How do you know what I'm doing! Huh?!" Toby's eyes narrowed under his goggles.
Cole smirked, lightly, "I know you by now. And when you don't get what you want you act like the child you were when you died."
Toby lurched forward in an attempted to remove the mask. Cole, hearing his body weight shift, leaned to the side a bit, but purposely not enough to avoid the other. The goggled proxy fell against his friend, causing them both to fall back. "Not fair!" Toby pouted, reaching up to snatched away the mask.
Cole chuckled as he avoided the other's frantic movements. This went on for quite awhile.

Cole decided to give in once he received an unexpected lapful of Toby. "A-alright! Alright! I give! I'll take off my mask!"
Toby laughed, gleefully and sat back. He didn't realized he'd just straddled the other.
Cole pulled the mask up and off, dropping it next to him as soon as he seen the sight before him. He felt his cheeks heat up, his black eyes wide. Toby cocked his head to the side in confusion. He then realized how and where he was sitting. Freezing in place, his face feeling as if it were on fire.
"I-I'm sorry! It was an accident!" He attempted to get up but was stopped by Cole's hands on his slender hips.
"I-It's alright. I just wasn't expecting," his voice trailed off as he reached up to rest a hand on the other's covered cheek.
"I-I see," Toby stammered, subconsciously leaning against the hand.
Cole slowly pulled the other down, a thick silence filling the air. Toby let out a shaking breath as his black eyed friend started to remove the mask from the lower half of his face.
Before it was a centimeter away from his nose the moment was ruined by a sharp feminine laughter from above them. Almost instantly Cole shoved Toby off him.

The shove was a lot harder than it was supposed to be. Toby landed about a foot away with a loud thud. The boy gave a violent twitch, a notable 'tic' was heard. Toby sat up, he was shaking a bit. Of course not out of pain, it wasn't even anger; he could feel rejection coursing through him.

"Oh my god! Toby, I'm sorry!" Cole quickly crawled over to the other.

Toby looked away from him, biting a quivering lip. He wasn't going to cry.

The laugh from before sounded again, then a woman slid out from the tree the two had just been under, "So sorry to have interrupted your guys' date. It was just too tempting."

"Leave, Harpy," Cole spat, quickly, his black gaze glaring at her.

The woman gave an obviously fake pout, "Is that anyway to treat your boss? Hm?" She snickered, slightly.

Cole rolled his eyes, "You're not my boss."

"Of course I am. You are my proxy after all."

Cole closed his eyes, trying to ignore the woman in front of him. He wasn't going to blow a fuse. Not in front of Toby. He'd already upset him enough.

"Such a cold shoulder, do you act this way toward your boyfriend?" She smiles at Toby, who intern rose an eyebrow in confusion.

"W-we're not-"

"He's not my boyfriend," Cole growled.

The woman pushed her black hair out of her crimson eyes as her charcoal lips quirked into a smirk, "Sure seemed like it with that display a minute ago."

"What display? Nothing happened!" Cole stated, defensively, as he noticed Toby twitch.

Said proxy felt a lump form in his throat. His eyes starting to well up.

No, no, no. Keep it together, Toby.

The woman scoffed, "I'm not bl-"

"If he said nothing happened, nothing happened, Ablaze!" Toby interrupted her with a shout, his voice cracking.

Ablaze flicked her eyes to him, "Toby, don't cover for my proxy."

Before he could respond, Cole growled again, "Stop calling me that!"

Ablaze laughed, "You are in no position to give orders," she teased.

"You ruined my life! I will say what I want, Bitch!"

The playful demeanor vanished, "I ruined your life? How was doing what you asked ruining your life?!"

"When you took the only thing I cared about from me! When you didn't let me die and brought me here!"

Ablaze growled, "I don't offer without payment! I told you that! You should have understood what I meant when I refused your money!"

Cole clenched a fist, "How exactly was I supposed to know?! I was fucking 14! Not just that but I was human! How could I have known what a demon like you meant by 'payment'?!"

Sharp teeth gritted together, "Ask before you make a deal!"

"Fuck you and your deals! I want released!"

A twisted sneer crossed her lips, "It's a little late to be saying that. I own you now; you do what I want and when I say it."

Before Cole could counter a static sound rang out. Another proxy, one of Slender's other ones, appeared in between them. Cole remembered from what Toby had told him that he went by Masky. Which was obvious why due to the mask the guy always wore.

As suddenly as Masky had appeared he'd punched Ablaze in the face, knocking her to the ground.