Flippy's alarm went off like usual, at around six am, waking both him and Cuddles, who let out a groan of protest. Without a word both happy tree friends got up, cuddles went into the bathroom to get changed for school As soon as he was gone Flippy began his morning routine of slipping out of his old clothes, into his new, and putting on his hat.

He didn't even get to the new clothes before he realized something was wrong.

As soon as he realized what it was he wondered how he hadn't noticed before. He'd been mauled by a gigantic beast last night and yet…he felt fine. Or at least a lot more fine then he should have felt after the previous night's event. He should be in agony, and yet, he wasn't. Just minor discomfort.

Slipping his shirt off and tugging off the slightly bloody bandages he felt confusion course through his body as his eyes fell on the wound. Something was off about it. He just couldn't-no wait. Now he could see it.

The wound was far more healed then it should be, especially since it had only happened the previous night. Sure, there was still hard congealed blood coating it and the flesh around it was raised and slightly red, but it was still far better than it should have been. Or maybe he was just imagining things. After all, he hadn't really gotten a good look at it last night. He'd been too busy trying not to bleed to death.

Glancing down at the wound again it occurred to him that he should probably re-bandage it. So making his way into the bathroom he grabbed new bandages, quickly recovering the wound, and headed back to his room to finish getting ready for school. Once inside he quickly got dressed, pulled on his hat, and rushed downstairs, joining his brother in the art of grabbing a quick breakfast and dashing out the door.

By the time theBFFs reached the bus stop his wound had slipped to the back of his mind, though Cuddles had fussed over it as they'd left, Flippy reassuring him that he was fine and that the wound stung, but was otherwise okay.

Cuddles had of course tried to press the matter, but eventually gave up, He also kept firm hold of his older Flippy's arm as if any minute he'd vanish and Cuddles would discover that he'd been imagining it, and really Flippy lay dead off in the woods, somewhere they'd never find him.

When they reached the bus stop his hold on Flippys arm had let up some, but he still stayed right at the Army obbessed boy's side. Flippy seemed to know how he was feeling, allowing him to clutch to his arm like a child with a favorite toy. Flaky too seemed to notice.

"Hey Flippy.", she glanced curiously at Cuddles, nodding to him. "He okay?"

Flippy nodded. "Fine. We just had a-" he thought over what to say before giving a slight nervous smile. "a long night."

"I k-k-know what you m-mean . "I hit this…this dog-Or at least, I think it was a dog- last night when I took the van out to pick up some pizza. It was crazy It's gut's were practically spilled over the concrete and the damn thing got back up and ran off,like it was nothing."

flippy and Cuddles shared a knowing glance which only Giggles noticed, though she made no mention of it, simply listening as the boys described how they'd "Gone out for the rest of the pictures for Cuddles's art project, heard the beast of Happy Tree Town, and run home freaked out."

At that point Spence had to butt in, laughing at the two teens as they boarded the bus to school and explaining just how much of pussies they were. That of course sparked an argument between him and Flippy and by the time they were at school and Cuddles left them to go find his girlfriend they were arguing full force, both slightly red with agitation.

This argument lasted through most of their classes together slowly stemming off into other arguments so that by lunch they were arguing about the overdone topic of flippy liking the dandruff girl who looked like a boy. he was blushing and spence didnt notice but Nutty on the other hand did and, being far more observant than people thought, realized . First, was the slight blush adorning Flippys soft pale cheeks, second was the way his eyes lingered on Flaky, a deep sadness and fear hidden in those light green eyes.

he knew that Flippy had a crush on Flaky and vice versa like he did for candy ah the sweet goodness

He'd have considered mentally berating himself more were it not for the sudden shrill sound of the bell echoing through the large cafeteria, derailing his train of thought. He quickly stood, followed his friends out into the hall, the four splitting up to head to their classes. Nutty and Flippy walked together as usual since they shared the same class, though Nutty stopped several times to glance back at Flaky who was glancing back longingly .at Flippy Unfortunately she had to stop her observation of her green haired friend so she could navigate her way to her least favorite class. History.

When Nutty and Flippy entered the classroom they took their usual seats in the middle, a compromise between them since Flippy wanted to sit in the back and Nutty wanted to sit in the front. Immediately Nutty had out his notebook, pen's, and a bag of candy. He was always excited about note taking, which Flippy found he could not understand. Why would you want to take notes?

"Think they'll be long today?", the hyper teen asked, knowing Flippy knew what he was asking.

The Green haired boy did. He nodded. "As always. Not too bad though."

He found that he didn't seem even slightly phased by the prospect of long notes. It wasn't like they were that hard. Just…boring. And even then, if the lesson was interesting…they were at least survivable. Just copy what you see. Easy mindless work.

"Not to you. You actually like notes.", Flippy responded, a hint of faux disgust in his voice. "It's like candy for you."

Nutty grimaced, giving his friend a slight shove. "Flippy! It is …I had to take notes to know what kind of candy had suger in them.", he shrugged. "It's not like they're all that hard anyway. Just write down what you see on the overhead." he smirked. "It's a lot like copying homework and you seem fine with that so."

his green eyed friend looked about ready to snap out a sarcastic comeback when he the teacher, Mr. Pop, walked in and he was forced to forgo it until later. Though he would get his say in later. After all, how dare Nutty point such a thing out. Though it was true.

"Today we begin our section on the Spanish inquisition.", Mr. Pop said firmly, moving to the overhead projector with purposeful strides. "The images in this section are rather…" he paused to think of an appropriate word. "Graphic. Those of you with weak stomachs should turn away."

Before anyone even had a chance to consider turning away Mr. Pop turned off the lights and turned on the overhead, a disturbing image of a bisected man appearing on the screen. There was a collection of horrified groans as several students turned away, obviously upset by the horrid image.

And really, who wouldn't be? The man's body was split straight down the middle across his abdomen, his insides spilled around him in a heap. Even without the clarity of modern photo's this was a truly horrific sight.

Nutty turned to see Flippy's reaction, knowing his squeamish friend would be on his way to expelling his lunch rather violently. Flippy could handle horror movies and fake gore, but real? Not so much. He had a weak stomach for those kinds of things.

So of course Nutty expected him to be bent over in a weak attempt at holding his lunch, but he wasn't. He was staring transfixed at the image on the screen, green eyes narrowed slightly. His body shook slightly, but there didn't seem to be a reason behind it.

Flippy didn't even realize Nutty's eyes were on him with concern, or that his teacher was explaining the importance of the picture. All he saw was the blood and gore, thick and red. It spilled out of the man as if he were a broken container. Somehow Flippy felt himself drawn in. He didn't notice when Nutty nudged him, or when his friend glanced away, eyes moving to the screen. All he noticed was red.

And when changed the slide to yet another horrific image of some poor persecuted man he found that, instead of the normal upset feeling that images like this brought him, he felt elated and he didn't know why. He felt captivated.

He didn't even bother taking notes. He just sucked in the images, catching the occasional word from Mr. Pop as she changed from one slide to the next. His heart beat loud in his ears and he literally saw red. Then, as the lights flicked back on and the projector screen went black, it was gone. And he was left shaking in his chair, breath coming in harsh gasps, which thankfully no one seemed to notice.

"Flippy?"

He turned to stare at Nutty, who flashed him a look of concern. "W-What?"

His friend frowned . "You okay?", he pointed to the desk and frowned. "You got all weird and shaky and started clenching the desk."

Looking down Flippy frowned, shakily letting his grip on the desk loosen. "Y-yeah.", he shook his head lightly, body relaxing. "I'm fine."

Nutty nodded disbelievingly. "Sure. You s-"

Before he could continue the bell rang and Kyle sprang up, a distracted look firmly in place on his face. He had no clue what had happened, but he was afraid. He rushed from the room, leaving Kenny to stare after him with worry.

The rest of the school day passed by in a blur, Flippy's mind stuck on what had happened in History. He barely noticed when the day was over and Flaky offered to drive him home. With barely a thought he agreed, getting into his crushes van. As they pulled out of the parking lot, Flaky gave her Crush a concerned sideways glance.

"A-a-are you ok flippy?"

Flippy blinked, shocked out of his thoughts by the redhead teen's voice. "Wha-Oh…yeah. Just having a weird day."

Flaky gave him a concerned glance. "Weird? Why weird? What happened?"

For a moment Flippy considered telling his secret crush about the awful thrill of seeing those gore filled pictures from the Spanish Inquisition. He considered telling her about the way his heart beat faster at the sight of the blood in every picture. The way his mouth tingled at the sight of torn flesh and flayed skin.

Then he realized how wrong it was. How horrid it was that he had felt excited by the bloodied corpses of poor men and women. How he'd felt a burning hunger as he stared into their lifeless eyes. How he'd longed to-

"Flippy?"

He looked sideways at Flaky, blinking away his thoughts. "huh?"

"What happened?", Flaky asked again, eyeing Kyle with more concern.

Flippy tried to give a convincing smile. "It's nothing."

Looking up he realized he was home. With a grateful smile, as it was obvious Flippy didn't believe him and wanted to say more, Fippy undid his seat belt. Thinking fast he hopped out of the van, flashing a bright smile and grabbing his shoulder bag.

"Thanks for the ride Flaky. I gotta go."

"But Flippy-"

"I'll talk to you tomorrow okay?"

Flaky sighed, nodding eventually. "Okay. Tomorrow."

Flippy nodded and closed the door to the van quickly heading into his house. Taking a quick look around he realized that though his parents weren't home .

He made his way up the stairs and he then phoned Cuddles

"Hey dude. Sup?", Cuddles asked, .

Flippy felt a smile tug at his own lips in response. "Nuthin much. What'd your teacher think of your art project?"

"She said it was disturbing, but educational.", He chuckled.

Flippy scoffed. "Educational? How? It was a slideshow of you and me as corpses."

Cuddles nodded, . "I know! How awesome is that!"

Flippy shook his head, smiling. "Pretty awesome."

Cuddles smiled. he could tell even if they where two blocks away "So then, how was your day?", . "How's your shoulder?"

Flippy glanced down at his bandaged shoulder, frowning. To be honest he'd almost forgotten about it. It hadn't really hurt all day and he'd barely noticed the bandages.

"It's fine."

"Fine?", Flippy pulled the bandages away his eyes went wide, face going pale. "No way!", Flippy cried, blinking radically.

Cuddles felt a stronger pang of fear. "What? What's wrong?"

. "It's healed…"

"What? B-But that's-"

"ill send you a pic " he said while sending a pic of the cut

He took in the pale scars on his shoulder where the bloody bite had been, but was no longer. There was almost no indication that the wound had ever been save the small tracing scar that marred otherwise flawless flesh. . It was healed.

"Impossible." Cuddles said as he finally got the pic

For several minutes both boys simply stared at the healed over flesh, the scar slightly paler than the rest of the skin. Neither knew what to say really. It was unnatural. Unreal.

"H-How the hell-", Cuddles began, only to be cut off by Flippy, .

"I don't know.", Flippy said quickly, sharing a frightened look with Cuddles over the line. "T-This isn't normal…"

"We should tell someone!", Cuddles said quickly, . "your Dad or-or…I don't know, someone!"

Flippy puthi hand aganst his forehead "No!"

"But-"

Flippy shook his head. "Who'd believe usCuddles? We have no proof I was even hurt. Besides, It's not like it's a bad thing that it's healed right? Unnatural yeah, b-but not bad."

Cuddles nodded, sitting down on his bed, head in his hands. "You're right, no one would believe us…and it is sorta good. I mean. It healed, so…"

"Yeah.", Flippy sat down . "It's not so bad. W-we'll just be careful. Keep an eye on it, okay?"

Cuddles nodded. "Yeah. It's probably nothing."

Flippy nodded, lifting his head. "Yeah…, but still…just between us right? swear on your grave?"

Cuddles seemed to pause for a moment before nodding . "Yeah. Just between us. I swear on my grave."

Flippy smiled. "Together forever little ?"

Cuddles nodded again. "Together forever."