It Started With Toast – Chapter 2

Warning: This story will contain romance between two males, don't like it don't read, if you don't care, enjoy the story.

Also, when Tiger is not directly involved in a scene, it will switch to third person.

Usual disclaimer stuff: I don't own anything, just the A/N's and the way this version is written in terms of word choice. Story isn't mine, Plot isn't mine, Crash bandicoot isn't mine, etc.

'It's been about a week since Crunch joined the team. Living with him hasn't been bad, actually it's been going rather well. One thing I was grateful for was the fact that he didn't snore in his sleep…'
I put down the journal I was writing in and absentmindedly set it on the edge of the table beside me. The library was usually one of my preferred places to be. It was always so nice and quiet, the perfect place to write my thoughts down while also generally being left alone. I was glad that I could leave the book in the library, instead of constantly having to worry about it. So long as the cover stayed closed it looked like any other book. I usually had a small hiding spot among one of the shelves to put it on, but it was getting rather late, and I was feeling rather tired.

"Looks like I should be getting ready for bed.." I mumbled to myself as I got up with a stretch, yawning softly. In my less than stellar state of awareness, I didn't notice that the book had fallen to the ground, opened to the last page as I walked out of the room. Upon arriving at my room I walked over to my wardrobe and opened it; nearly being buried in an avalanche of green and orange. I swore quietly to myself and began quickly rearranging everything so the mess was organized. I was glad that no one was around to see the little mishap, but I didn't recall leaving it like this when I left… I shrugged my shoulders dismissively and was about to grab my nightgown, but decided against it at the last moment; opting instead to just strip down to my boxers and get under the covers. I yawned once more as I began to drift off to sleep, unaware of the figure that stood in the doorway.

As my dreamscape began to form once more, I found my dream-self waking to the sound of a roaring waterfall off in the distance, and the soothing song of birds somewhere overhead. I looked around, noticing myself to be in some sort of forest clearing next to what looked like a bed of roses and I could see the waterfall not too far off. I knelt down to touch one of the roses, the silken nightgown that I wore shifting slightly with the movements. Just as I was about to touch it, the rose seemed to move, startling me and causing me to fall backwards. I leaned up into a sitting position just in time to notice the rose to reveal itself to be a crimson red butterfly as it took to the skies. The rest of the roses seemed to transform and turn into more butterflies. I stood up, looking on in wonder as they began circling the clearing before taking off in the direction of the waterfall. I chased after them, curious about where they would lead me. The sound of the falls grew louder as I approached, the crimson butterflies splitting into two separate streams and flying off in different directions as they reached the end of their role. I could see a figure standing beneath the falls, but the rushing water obscured their features, leaving me with a vague silhouette. As I stood there staring, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I got the foreboding sense of someone watching me. I couldn't tell if the feeling was from the figure under the rushing water, or from someone in the real world…

Meanwhile, as Tiger was in the library, Crunch was stuck with Ripper Roo. The bandicoot sighed softly at the situation he found himself in; Ripper Roo decided to wanted to clean out his room and rearrange it, which meant that Crunch would have to do all the work.

"Hey Crunch, move this over there." The kangaroo said as he began hopping on top of a table to indicate what he needed moved.

"Couldn't you have gotten Tiny to do this?" Crunch replied with a small frown as he folded his arms across his chest, tilting his head with a disappointed yet questioning glance. Ripper Roo paused in his jumping and shook his head fervently in denial.

"Nope. Tiny's too dumb to know where I want to put things, and I can't do this myself cause I can't get this straightjacket off." He gave an odd grin and small chuckle as the end of his reply, causing Crunch to think twice about asking anymore questions. He silently went about his work as Ripper Roo jumped on each object he wanted moved, and then jumping to where he wanted it moved to. It took well over an hour to get things how the kangaroo wanted and Crunch was sweating buckets by the time he was done. None of the objects were light, and there were times when Ripper Roo couldn't make up his mind on where he wanted something, so things would sometimes be moved multiple times, back and forth or across the room. Ripper Roo gave a gleeful cackle when all was said and done, bouncing around with a smile on his face.

"Thanks Crunch." He said as the bandicoot left. Crunch gave a dismissive "No problem." In reply, but couldn't help but wonder quietly to himself why he couldn't just have that straightjacket removed… Crunch sighed as he thought that he'd rather not find out that answer. As Crunch looked out the window down onto the planet below, wondering what it was like to live on the surface he scented the air, finding something off about it. He was slightly puzzled by the unfamiliar scent…surely his imagination couldn't have been that great… It took a few minutes until he figured out that the scent was coming from himself; and that he needed a shower badly. He made a small face of disgust as he headed towards the showers.

When he arrived at the communal showers he wasted no time putting his things away in his locker before turning on the water and allowing it to wash over him. The showers offered no privacy, but it didn't bother him in the slightest, and besides, it wasn't as though anyone was around to see him anyways. When the bandicoot deemed himself clean enough and turned off the water he dried off and walked back towards his locker with a towel wrapped around his waist. When Crunch opened his locker, he noticed his clothes were missing.

'Maybe I put them in a different locker…' he thought. After all, some of the lockers looked similar, and he might have accidentally put them in the next one over. However, after searching the locker room his clothes were nowhere to be found. Crunch gave an aggravated growl as he thought that it was just some sort of prank because he was still new. Doing the best he could to make sure the towel around his waist was secure, he gave a small huff as he exited the locker room, hoping to either find his clothes or get back to his room before anyone noticed him. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't seem to catch a break as he ran into Tiny while he was making his way to his room. Tiny didn't notice the foul mood the bandicoot was in and snickered, grinning as he asked "Crunch lose something?" Crunch glared daggers at the Tasmanian tiger at the question.

"Tiny, if I find whoever thought it was a good idea to take my clothes, I'll make sure they deeply regret it." The tiger paused, his small grin at a possibly funny situation gone as he didn't expect to hear a threat coming from the bandicoot that had seemed nicer than some of the others around. Crunch, after noticing Tiny's stunned silence, stalked past him, determined to get to his room before anyone else saw him. He was just about to walk past the library when out of the corner of his eye he noticed one of his shoes. After taking a quick look around and determining that no one else was in the room he walked over to where his shoe was; lying next to a table in the middle of the room. After picking up his shoe, Crunch found the rest of his clothing was resting on top of it. The bandicoot quickly made his way back to the entrance to the library and shut the door, ensuring that no one would walk in on him as he changed. As he went about dressing himself he mumbled "I wonder who the hell put them in here?". When he was finished dressing himself, he bent down to pick up his discarded towel, noticing an open book on the floor. Curiosity got the better of him as he walked over towards the book and picked it up; eyes widening as he saw the page it was opened to.