Chapter Summary: Toby and Whiskey are total bros. That's all.

Notes: One of the only Deande/Whiskey fics, Tango, has a great scene with Toby and Whiskey being friends, so this was a chapter I had looked forward to writing.

Italics means flashback.

Chapter 9: Toby

At first, Toby had been really intimidated by Whiskey. The guy was, like, ten times his size, had shark-like teeth, and purposefully went around without a shirt wearing a broken helmet. You had to be pretty confident to go around like that. Well, or stupid, but Whiskey was actually reading a philosophy book the first time he saw him, so he figured that wasn't it.

So Toby had did the first thing he could think of; making himself seem as tough as possible so he wouldn't pick on him by casually bringing up his death machine.

Whiskey had responded by being genuinely impressed with this and asking if he could see it. Toby succeeded only slightly in playing it cool.

He figured out pretty quick that, while he was dangerous, Whiskey was a pretty nice guy. While showing off Berg, he learned they both had issues with the UPR not appreciating them. Things just took off from there.

Whiskey didn't mind if he got emotional about things, because he was an emotional guy, too, so he knew that somethings you needed to just let it out. Even if he didn't let on when he was scared, he never made fun of Toby for it (though he would tell him to be quiet if he had to), he listened if he was sad, and let him vent if he was angry.

And he talked to Toby about things, too. He'd vent back to him ("Fair is fair!" Toby had told him), tell him stories about his life on the run, sometimes brought him pictures to put in his scrapbook, which he approved of ("World's ending, doesn't mean we can look back at the good stuff"), and treated him like a bro.

That's why, when he went through the simulator for Oscar Mike's trials, and heard what that General Mike guy said about him, it hit him close to home and pissed him off. Toby had told him off for it, even if he knew he couldn't actually hear and respond. Because just like that Clonestitution thing said, you had to stick by your bro.

Whiskey had been really appreciative of it when he'd come out, apparently brought there by Oscar, who apparently liked seeing how other people did in the trial gauntlet, and Nova, because as long as they were living in her she could watch whatever she wanted.

"Seriously, I don't think I could be happier if you actually said it to his face! Partly because of the possibility of him challenging you to a fist fight and then hurting you would have ruined the mood. But this!" He let out a bark of a laugh, "This was just the best!"

Toby doesn't get to see Whiskey in the flesh as much as he used to, since everyone is all spread out around what's left of the universe now. Luckily, Whiskey's the sort of guy who, if he's friends with you, always takes the time to answer and respond to messages from you.

Notes:

It's not that Whiskey thinks Toby couldn't handle himself in a fight with General Mike. It's that the awesomeness of Toby defending him would be kinda ruined if he got hurt as a result. Plus, you know, it might cause a strain between their relationship with Planet Mike.

The idea of Toby going off on him comes from him going off on Rendain. It was awesome to listen to.

Two more chapters to go, and the next one is Whiskey's lady fair.

Comments are appreciated.