The Life And Death Crisis [TicciDrowned AU]

[Seven]

This is how I imagine Ben and Toby look in this horrible canon noncompliant au. I'll draw up some of Danny and Dallas soon. Your least favourite punk dad has an overused Tumblr art style, feel free to throw your stones, but he throws back, so keep that in mind. I high-key wanna use these as matching profile pics with someone. Anyway, feel free to take them and use them for whatever. Just don't remove my watermarks, maybe link to my Wattpad if you're feeling like it. I should have called this chapter "In which y'all realise these two are stupid teenagers and aren't going to act like adults."

The song is Death Kart by Teenage Bottlerocket.

Waking up the next morning and having to drag his aching body out of bed is officially Toby's least favourite thing. He hadn't imagined a short trek through the woods and a couple of hours of painting a wall would result in this shit.

Begrudgingly, he rolls off of the mattress and clicks the button on his alarm before it drives him nuts. Everything totally sucks right now, but he saunters out of his room and down the hall to grab a shower anyways. There are fuckin twigs stuck in his hair and shit, and he can totally feel some dried spray-paint on his cheek. It better fuckin' wash off, or he's going to steal Ben's chocolate milk at lunch as revenge.

He fiddles with the knobs until water jets out of the showerhead, and while it heats up he scratches at the splotch of green paint on his cheek. It doesn't budge. That totally sucks, man. Once he's decided it isn't coming off, he climbs into the shower to get cleaned up.

—

The halls are crowded as fuck when he arrives, and he has to grab the strap of his bag so it isn't tugged off his person by the sheer force of the bustling crowds. Before seeking out Ben, he dips into the office to greet Danny, who's busily dropping things into the secretary's shredder.

"Toby, you've got a little something on your face." She says, patting the green patch, and feeds another sheet of paper into the shredder.

"Ben's fault," He murmurs and averts his gaze, going pink in the cheeks. Danny laughs quietly and pats him on the back, then gives him a gentle shove towards the door. "Go find your loverboy, dude, and text me sometimes, jeez. Don't forget about little old me in your quest for a boyfriend."

"I won't." He promises, waving goodbye before stepping back out into the hall.

Ben's not at his locker, so Toby fires off a quick text to him, then makes his way to the cafeteria for something to eat.

Upon entering the cafeteria, he sees Ben and starts towards him, grinning, then stops dead when the girl next to him pulls him in for a kiss.

An ache blooms in his chest, seeing Ben kiss someone that isn't him. It's different from the ache he felt this morning. It's less of an ache, more of searing pain. The suddenness of it makes his eyes water.

His hands are shaking as he flees the room, head down so he doesn't attract attention to himself.

"It'll be okay," Toby murmurs to himself, weaving through the hall.

—

The rest of the day is awkward as fuck. He skips lunch, hunkering down in the bathrooms until it's over, and spends the whole of his classes with his head down, intent on taking notes and not crying.

Ben texts him a couple of times, and Toby isn't a total dick, so he answers, though he quickly clams up when Ben asks where he is.

When he finally gets home, he sheds his clothes and buries himself in the pile of blankets on his bed. Fucking shitty stupid teenage feelings. Stupid fucking straight boys and their stupid flirting.

He should have known better.

No matter how much he reminds himself that he has no real ownership on Ben's heart, Toby can't make the hurt go away. He'd thought there was something there, a spark, and to find out all the flirting was tongue-in-cheek makes him feel like shit for falling for it, and falling for him.

Maybe if he wasn't so fuckin easy, he'd be fine. If he didn't fall for literally every guy who so much as looked at him, this wouldn't be happening.

Someone knocks on his bedroom door, and he grumbles out a "come in," then rolls over to face them.

"You look like shit," Lyra says, pushing the door open, "and your face is stained. Did something happen?"

He kinda wants to give her the cold shoulder, but he's got to be better than that. Eventually, she'll be all the family he has. "Ben's got himself a girlfriend, but I thought he and I had something. Being friends with him felt like having a boyfriend without the title and the obligatory kissing."

Lyra settles on his bed and pulls him up out of the blanket pile so she can hug him. "I'm sorry, Toby. I thought he liked you too. But we can't decide who we're attracted to. If he's straight, no amount of flirting and being the cutest fuck on this side of the States is going to change that."

Toby kinda breaks, when she hugs him, sagging against her and crying into her shoulder. Stupid fucking teenage feelings.

Leave Ben's girlfriend alone her name is Dallas and she's gonna be cool as fuck and integral to the story.