EDIT: Okay, so two important things:

1. I forgot to note that I made some MAJOR revisions in chapters 4-6. If you care at all about the general plot/mood of the story I'd just skim over them again. ;)

2. So. Readers. Jay's fate is now suddenly in your hands (to an extent lol). Please voice your opinions (in either review or in the poll I will shortly be putting up) as to how...explicit you'd like the next chapter to be. I can see it go several ways, but I'd like to hear you guys out first. That's all, now go check out the edits! :P

So I'm pretty sure I just met Jay's (Troy's) doppelgänger today and he was really nice and cute and smiled at me and shook my hand and his hand was warm. ;3; Lol best day ever. His name was Steve. XD

But anyways! (lololol) Finally. This was a huge, important, chapter. Quite long.

I think you'll like it. I actually like it for once!

I don't know if you guys like the messing around with point of view, but I'm trying things. =D

And again, thank you for all the kind reviews! I literally cry with happiness every time I see a new one! And the follows and favorites are wonderful too. So thanks to each and every one of you! I love you all :U

Without further ado, enjoy!

Tim's whereabouts did not seem to bother Hoody, though. With morbid amusement, the proxy moved his free hand and pressed his thumb delicately to the side of the smaller man's throat. It convulsed slightly as Jay swallowed. Hoody liked seeing Jay's pupils dilate. He enjoyed reading the fear and helplessness there. Is this how his partner felt, doing these things to this boy?

Hoody had felt jealous the first time he had walked in on them in the shed. It looked like fun. It had made him want a plaything, too. It wasn't fair that "Masky" was the only one with such a pet. Wasn't fair that he had all the fun. Hoody grew incredibly covetous of Masky's little camera man. So envious, in fact, that he decided to try to claim Jay as his own. And he was. And it was working. Oh, was it working...

Hoody was making Jay horribly nervous. He could not tell if he was just playing, or had real intentions to hurt (or maim, or kill). It was difficult to tell. With Masky, at least, it was clear that there wasn't much intent to hurt as there was to tease. But the way Hoody handled Jay was more careless, less controlled. Jay's head still sang out terribly from the punch and his collision with the ground. And on a side note, Jay realized almost with dismay that he could not get lost in the endless black pits of the mask of his attacker. Instead, the glaring red cutouts seared brutally into the backs of Jay's eyes, and he could do nothing to shut them out.

Jay began to shake, throat growing tired as Hoody continued to poke at it. The force of Hoody's body on his own and the harsh grip on his wrists was becoming unbearable. It felt like his arms were falling asleep. He opened his mouth, willing himself to shout - scream, plead - anything to get his assailant off of him. Jay was scared. Oh, and he wanted Tim. He wanted to get away from the cold, harsh fingers of his hooded attacker.

Smiling down at his prey, Hoody shifted his weight just slightly. Jay's arms were kept locked in position above his head. Hoody could do anything he pleased - yes anything - and oh, it made his inhuman heart race. He watched the dilated pupils of the man beneath him tremble as he slid a cool hand beneath his shirt. Touching, brushing, lightly over the chest. Pausing to relish in the way the nipples hardened so cutely beneath his touch. What a good boy. What a good pet. He would have to reward him, somehow...

Hoody bent low, bringing his face down to nuzzle the sweet flesh of Jay's exposed neck. Jay jerked, arms protesting just slightly, but fell back into his motionless respite. Maybe it wasn't so bad to just let Hoody do what he wanted, Jay thought. Perhaps, if he behaved, he would live through this ordeal. Maybe. It had worked with Masky (Tim) hadn't it? He was still alive wasn't he? Jay decided not to fight. He did not struggle when Hoody pushed his shirt up and over his head, laying it on the grass just beside his head.

How beautiful, Hoody thought, as he lost himself in the fine lines of Jay's slight form. Is this what his partner had been keeping from him? He couldn't blame him for wanting it all to himself. Just look at how those huge brown eyes plead, begging, so vulnerable! Stomach trembling slightly...mouth pressed into a fine line...Hoody suddenly had the overpowering urge to make his prey his own - to take him fully. Yes...he would make those fair lips beg for it. Then he would give it to him, slowly.

Jay twitched nervously, dewdrops melting into his now exposed skin. Hoody's hand was still splayed out over his chest, stealing away his warmth, making him shiver. Hoody seemed to be deep in thought, and this made Jay's nerves tense considerably. After a moment, the bigger man shuddered back to life. He smoothed his hand down the soft skin of Jay's side, pushing tentatively at the flesh around his slender hips. Jay could not help but bend upwards, just slightly, into the touch. Everything was so quiet now. Silent, even as little needles of water - pinpricks of mist - continued to fall steadily upon the world around him. Quiet, as though the birds could not sing, strangled by a force they could not perceive. Hoody's demeanor had somehow changed. He was moving casually, but with purpose. A calm, disturbing urgency. Jay noticed that the hooded man's hand was beginning to leave hot trails up and down his body - he twisted just slightly. The touches affected him in an odd, unfamiliar way.

It was different, Jay thought, a slight blush spreading onto his cheeks.

Different than what?

The warm cloth of Hoody's guise brushed against his chest. Jay watched with shocked stillness as Hoody held his arms down with one hand, continued to touch him with the other, and ran his mouth up towards his collar bone. Jay hiccupped quietly when Hoody exhaled hotly, tongue pressing against the cloth of his mask to heat the juncture of his neck.

So cute. See? It wasn't so bad. He even liked it! Hoody reveled in the soft pink that was beginning to tint the pale skin of Jay's face. He wanted to move lower...but for that, he'd have to free up both his hands. Contemplating his strategy for a moment, Hoody shifted to straddle Jay's slender hips, and slowly released his grip on the trembling man's arms. Though Jay seemed to recognize that his limbs were free, he did not try to resist. Instead, he moved his arms to his sides, and looked up plaintively.

Good...Hoody breathed pleasantly, lowering his head to kiss at Jay's navel. His insides simply squirmed with glee when Jay moved a hand to clutch at the back of his sweatshirt. He gripped Jay's hips in response, biting lightly at the sweet flesh on the other side of his cloth visage. Curling his fingers through Jay's belt loops, Hoody tugged the blushing man's pants down just below the hem of his boxers.

Jay's breathing was shallow. His mind was almost empty.

Almost.

His mind revisited his first encounter with Masky. The smell of oak and copper. The damp walls of the shed. The encounter that had spun into a situation much like this one. Methodical, tempting, and so undeniably pleasurable. The ease Jay felt when he slipped into the abysmal pits of the mask...the darkness which surrounded the proxy.

Jay thought of Tim. Tim, and the worry in his voice. The absolute care in his touches. The pain, dark and oozing, pulsing infectiously in his eyes. Tim, his friend. His best friend, his partner, the only human he could trust and talk to and be close to without the horrible fear of dragging someone new into this raging mess, a tangled web of poison and thorns and endless voids which so enraptured Jay's aching heart and crushed it into dust.

Which one do you love?

Through a distanced gaze Jay watched as Hoody lowered his head towards his crotch, inching his jeans down slowly. His hand gripped the orange sweatshirt and clenched hard when Hoody's mouth brushed against the fabric of his boxers. He didn't want it, but he did. He wanted this, but not with him. Jay fought the urge to whimper when his assailant wrenched his jeans down to his knees roughly, and replaced his hands on the sides of his hips. The grip was bruising. Inconsiderate. Impatient. Jay closed his eyes and tried to breath normally, tried to imagine that Masky was doing this - Masky? - that Tim was doing this.

Then his boxers slipped lower. Hoody raised his head to look at Jay as his thumbs dipped beneath the fabric. Lower, dangerously stretching the thin line of Jay's sanity. The red cutouts seared into Jay's eyes - wide, brown, and glassy - limbs limp as he looked on, helpless. His boxers were almost off and Hoody grinned behind his fake cutouts as he prepared to take his prey with sweet, unbridled ferocity. And a single tear rolled down the side of Jay's cheek (he didn't even feel it) not because of fear or anger or sadness but because he knew in his heart that he was utterly helpless. So weak. So pathetic. And he was letting this happen because he was too broken to fight. To shattered to even attempt to push the weight of Hoody's body off his own -

- which was suddenly not there anymore.

Hoody had been thrown off of his body in a second by a blur of darkness. Jay sat up, surprise spinning his gut like a windmill. He stared at the figure now wrestling with Hoody, a tangle of orange and black - oh, and a touch of white - flailing among the dead leaves. Jay hastily pulled his pants up, some mixture of relief flooding his senses as he regained his composure. He backed up a little until he felt his spine hit the trunk of a tree, and exhaled nervously.

The fight didn't last more than a minute.

The figure pinning Hoody down was fast and ruthless. His punches were meant to maim...Jay flinched at a particularly hard one. He didn't move, though. Didn't say a word. Jay realized he could care less about his attacker's life but...he did fear for the other's. He felt a strange warmth for the other, the one that had rescued him. Jay thought, for a fleeting moment, that he may truly like him.

Jay chuckled darkly. How messed up was he?

Wide brown eyes turned upwards when they realized Hoody's struggles had ceased. Masky, the figure that had leapt in to save him, sat over the body for a while. Jay gazed at him, the void in his chest fluttering prettily. He watched as his savior rose steadily, gloved hands lax at their sides. The masked face turned towards Jay, and the shoulders relaxed visibly. Jay felt an unexpected warmth fill his void, like warm sugar coating all of his insides. He gazed into the pits of the mask, and smiled. It was small, and lasted only for a second, but it was a smile. Jay registered his own expression with wonder. How long had it been since he'd last smiled? He couldn't remember.

Masky walked over to Jay, who was still shirtless, slouching slightly with his back against a tree. Jeans pulled almost all the way up, but with the fly unzipped. Masky felt something stir inside of him. He crouched low, getting closer. He looked at the little dew drops sprinkling Jay's chest and face. Brown eyes huge, lost in the black holes of his mask. Eyelashes sticking together in some places. Masky brushed a finger over them, watching the dusting of pink across Jay's cheeks grow darker. Hand on one cheek, Masky felt his face draw closer to Jay's.

He knew that what he was doing was punishable. After all, he was fighting the Operator. Fighting himself. Fighting the mask.

Yet he needed to put the writhing darkness inside of him to sleep - for Jay.

It was hard.

He could feel thin cracks form, feel the light pushing up through them. Yet the power the Operator held over him was still strong, and seemed to be growing stronger.

But he could not afford to lose. He could feel Tim fighting alongside him. He would win against the void that was starving them all.

Jay exhaled softly as Masky nuzzled the crook of his neck. In the gray silence of the woods, mist fading now just a little, he could hear the other man's shallow breathing. The cavity in his chest began to ripple, and the urge to simply feel was suddenly inexorable. He grabbed Masky's jacket collar with one hand and tugged to pull him upwards, until the hollow eyes of the mask were level with his own. His other hand slid carefully upwards, curling gently around the rim of the mask. A moment passed between them, the darkness heaving in its death throes - voids pulsing, heart beats uneven and oh so rapid. Then, with wordless consent, Jay carefully pried the mask away from the face. Heart shuddering, the mask fell onto the dew-soaked grass. They were shaking (god they were both shuddering nonstop) at the truth and the reality and the potential of it all falling apart at any moment. Jay hardly felt his hands moving to thread through Tim's hair and pull him forwards, lips finally - finally - meeting in a kiss that was so stuffed with promise and love and dirt and hate and masks and tapes and pills and fire that they nearly flew apart at the touch.

But it was so good that neither of them stopped.

It was soft and sweet and so lovely at first. Tim pressed into the kiss, willing Jay to part his lips (oh, please!) just a little, sliding his hands over the bare skin still speckled with drops of dew. Jay complied, with just a whisper of space, enough to let their breath mingle for a split second before Tim let his tongue slide in. And then it was not tentative. Tim took what he wanted from Jay, licking everywhere and anywhere he could. He bit gently down on the smaller man's lip, earning a pleasured moan that sent little shivers down his spine. Jay wound his fingers roughly into Tim's hair, emitting pitiful noises whenever he had sufficient oxygen. His tongue shifted shyly against Tim's, and Tim let out a muffled moan of appreciation. Tim tasted like sweet tobacco, and Jay liked it. Jay tasted like warm apple cider, and Tim loved it.

They were both gasping heavily as the kiss was broken, their tongues untangling slowly. Tim's eyes never left Jay's for a second. They smoldered with want. Jay tried his best not to look as though he was blushing beet-red. But he realized, that for what felt like the first time in his life, Jay was truly needed by another human being. His heart filled with liquid gold, so hot it almost burned, and he wasn't sure if it was a teardrop or a bead of water that slid down his cheek.

"Tim!" He rasped loudly, suddenly, pushing his face into the bigger man's chest. His body shook in dry sobs of happiness. He was going crazy. Jay was so happy he was actually laughing, clutching Tim's jacket as though he were about to fall to pieces. "Tim...I...I -"

Tim cut Jay's blubbering off with a rough kiss on the lips. He lifted up the camera man's chin, and smiled into the shimmering brown eyes.

"Yeah," he said, sifting a gloved hand through the sandy brown locks. "Me too."

;)

Stay tuned folks, good things ahead...