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Toby sighed, relaxing into the bed that was supplied for him in the mansion. He’d been there for two days already, and he felt like he was dying. There were a few good parts of living here, though.
Or one good part.
The young man training him and the other new “proxy”, as he called them. He was an awkward, vile, and just generally horrible person by the name of Jeff. His skin was pure white, burns and scars painted over it, with large, garish scars in the shape of a smile on his face. He had burnt eyelids, just barely there, sitting over his bloodshot eyes. He was also so glaringly southern, talking almost stereotypically.
But, damn, Toby loved him.
He was the highlight of his day, making his life just slightly bearable. Toby tended to gravitate towards him already, being made the butt of his jokes and just plain insulted by him. He’d narrow his eyes at him when he saw him approaching, then scoot so he’d take up the entirety of wherever he was sitting. Toby still wouldn’t care, and just ended up sitting on the floor next to him.
He really didn’t understand why he liked him so much. He had spent the last weekend trailing around behind him like a lost puppy, pretty much just chasing after him if he was separated from him for a few hours.
Toby tossed and turned, trying to sleep.
God, either he really couldn’t stop thinking about this guy or he was just… on edge.
He’d rather be on edge then have a crush on some asshole he met two days ago.
Really, he was probably just stressed out. He’d never thought he liked men before (or women either, honestly…) and he had just gone through (probably.) the most traumatizing experience of his whole life. He was just stressed.
His mind wandered to the day he’d just had.
Jeff had called him and the other “proxy” down into the woods behind the mansion this morning, trying to teach them how to kill people the easiest based on his own abilities and knowledge (Which he tended to have a lot of, with an understanding of human anatomy to rival a surgeon.)
For Toby, he’d grabbed a hatchet out of his hand, which definitely had no effect on him whatsoever, and walked towards an already dead body.
“You see, kiddos, you’re gonna want your victims thrown out on the ground, y’know?” He said, poking the victim’s head with the tip of the hatchet, looking over at his audience. “Hit ‘em in the armpit or neck, it gets ‘em dead faster! There’s an artery in both of ‘em.”
The other proxy, a tall, black humanoid creature in a black hoodie and a blue mask hiding a gaping maw and empty eye sockets, nodded quickly. Toby just kind of stood there, twitching.
“Twitch-” (God, Toby felt like he was going to explode.) “-you don’t need both of these things, really.” The man held up his hatchet, the weight of it visible in how he held his back. “It’s too fucking bulky!” He snickered, raising Toby’s hatchet up like he was going to strike the dead body. He smashed it down into its neck, blood splurting up in arches. It soaked over the cuffs of his black dress pants, and he wrenched the hatchet out of the neck, cracking it back down again hard enough to decapitate the victim.
Toby remembered how he’d flushed at that.
Jeff threw the hatchet back towards him, Toby racing to pick up the weapon off the ground. He held it to his side, running back to his spot. The other proxy turned towards him, seeming to look at him without eyes.
Toby stared down at his bloodied hatchet. He felt like he was floating, and his stupid heart was thudding in his chest. He blushed hard.
He wondered, just then, laying in his bed, if Jeff’s tongue would feel good in his mouth. He thought about it for a while, brain making up a situation between him and the young man. He wanted to lick over his stupid fucking glasgow smile and kiss his stupid face.
Toby felt like he was going to throw up.
God, he was thinking about making out with the random guy who was teaching him and a literal demon how to kill people?
His heart hammered in his chest.
Fuck, he felt so weird about that… He really wanted him. He really, really wanted another man. He wanted to kiss another man.
He sucked in a breath, reminding himself that this was all because he was stressed. There’s no way he’s really into men. Jeff was cute, and Toby could really appreciate another man’s… appearance, but it wasn’t even the physical aspect that he thought was cute. (Well, that too, but Toby would rather ignore that.) His little mannerisms, habits he’d come to recognize from his constant following of him.
He wasn’t gay.
There was nothing gay about what he thought about Jeff.
Just homie behavior.
Jeff was just… physically attractive to him.
…
A few weeks later, Toby is still chasing after Jeff like a lost puppy, despite occasionally having to go on missions, where he’d still whine and try to drag Jeff along with him. That only works sometimes. It was probably out of pity too.
Jeff hated him, still. He’d yell and groan about how awful it was to have to be around a fucking retard. He’d watch Toby kill people, yammering about how he was so fucking bad at it. Toby would make him shut up on occasion, but he’d usually just let him yap about his hatred of whatever he was doing.
Today was one of those days where Toby and Jeff were on a mission together, the two walking through the forest. They were both silent, except for Toby’s tics. Jeff said angrily, groaning.
“So, twitch, you’re just gonna drudge through the fucking mud until you get bored?” Jeff said sarcastically, scoffing. “Or are you going to do the mission?”
Toby twitched harder. His neck cracked, and Jeff’s eyes widened behind him. “S-shut up!” He yelped out, walking faster.
Jeff sped up behind him, surprised.
“Oh, really?” Jeff said, laughing. He knew that Toby was too… infatuated with him to hurt him. He huffed, smiling wider, the dried blood from his scars cracking. He watched Toby grip his hatchet tighter. He turned to face Jeff, glaring at him.
“You’re not scary, Twitch.” Jeff laughed, pushing past him.
They continued on, finishing the mission in awkward silence.
…
Toby and Jeff had started to train together, occasionally including one of the newer proxies so no one would suspect anything. They weren’t even training usually, they would just play around and laugh at the new residents.
A younger girl joined them this past month. She was around Jeff’s age, and Jeff seemed to get along with her. Jeff had found her on one of his missions- one that Toby wasn’t on- and decided that she was funny enough to spare. She had cut her cheeks to look like his, making her look like a girl version of Jeff.
And Toby absolutely fucking hated her.
He would shake violently like a dog around her, seething in anger whenever they talked. God, he hated her so much. He wished she had died in that fucking fire, caused by Jeff, to make her “beautiful”, like him.
He knew he was horrible for thinking that about an innocent girl.
But, he really couldn’t help himself.
Him, Jeff, and the girl were hanging out in the woods behind the mansion. Jeff started yammering about some random shit, sitting with his head on Toby’s lap. The girl was running around with a knife, and they watched as she tried to throw it at Jeff’s fucked up gremlin dog.
Jeff scoffed as she tried again, glancing over to the girl and his dog. He sniffled, smiling harder in genuine mirth.
“You like her, huh?” Jeff asked, raising his eyebrows. “I like her. She’s nice to me.”
Toby was fuming.
“I-I don’t t-think t-that-” Toby hiccuped, coughing. “I d-don’t think s-she’s a-all t-that cool.”
“Well, I think she’s nice. You and her would get along, if you tried.” Jeff sighs, smiling sappily at Toby. Jeff was so, so pretty, at least to him. The words that Jeff said to him fizzled in his brain, making him blush.
He was so down bad, wasn’t he?