Proxies are Still People- A Masky x Hoodie story (Rewrite)

Chapter 1

It was a warm evening in Slender Woods. A brown haired boy was making his way out to the back of the manor he’d lived in for years.

He found a certain tree where another boy, his hair a slightly darker brown, sat at the base of the trunk. Despite the sleep mask he wore he was wide awake. He turned to face the other. A smile on his face, “Took you long enough, Toby. I thought the sun would rise before you got here.”

Toby twitched slightly, his heart fluttering at the other’s smile. He was the only person to make him smile. 

“Sorry, Cole,” Toby muttered, “Slender needed me to do a quick check around the forest.”

Cole gave a hum of understanding, though Toby knew he would have rather snarked about how the faceless being shouldn’t be making everyone do stuff.

Cole was still fairly new around here and wasn’t exactly happy about it. However since the two had begun speaking he’d been less open about his dislike of the Underrealm, Slender Woods and Manor. He just enjoyed speaking with the other too much to waste it complaining.

Toby sat next to him, “You know something strange?”

Cole tilted his head, “Besides us being here?” 

Toby refrained his urge to smack him, “We meet at the same tree at the same time every evening.”

Cole was silent a moment, realizing he was right. This was even the same tree they’d meet at. 

Cole had been standing there after that harpy brought him here. Toby had seen him from inside the manor and came out to greet him. The first thing Cole did was slam him against the tree and start screaming at him. 

To make the story short, that harpy showed up and knocked him out. He later woke up in a bedroom with two beds. He lay in one dazed and confused. The other bed was occupied by Toby. 

He’d found out later that proxies had to share rooms. Regardless of who they belonged to, too. 

“Yeah,” Cole mumbled, “Hey, I’m sorry about how I acted when we met. I wasn't in the right state of mind.”

Toby let out a small giggle, “I’ve told you not to worry about that. Besides it's not like you hurt me. I can’t feel pain, remember?” His blue eyes sparkled a bit under his goggles as he smiled at the other.

Cole nodded, remembering a previous conversation with Toby where he explained that he had Tourette Syndrome, which explained his twitching, Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (C.I.P.A) and Bipolar Disorder. He also had P.T.S.D. from being in the car accident that took his sister from him, though since his death he hasn’t had any issues.

Toby was the only person Cole would admit to having a tougher life than his own.

Poor dude’s been through so much and has had to- His thoughts were interrupted by the other tugging at his sleep mask.
“Hey! What are you-”
“I hate talking to you when you have this stupid thing on,” Toby interrupted, curtly.
Cole sighs and pulls away from the other, “I’d prefer to keep it on, Toby. It makes me look relatively normal.”
Toby pouted under his mask, letting out a hot breath that would have fogged his goggles if they weren't so tightly pressed to his face.
“Don’t pout at me,” Cole quipped.
“You can’t even see me! How do you know what I’m doing! Huh?!” Toby’s eyes narrowed under his goggles.
Cole smirked, lightly, “I know you by now. And when you don’t get what you want you act like the child you were when you died.”
Toby lurched forward in an attempt to remove the mask. Cole, hearing his body weight shift, leaned to the side a bit, but purposely not enough to avoid the other. The goggled proxy fell against his friend, causing them both to fall back. “Not fair!” Toby pouted, reaching up to snatched away the mask.
Cole chuckled as he avoided the other's frantic movements. This went on for quite awhile.